Hi gang,

I've been fixing up my buddy's '93 Jimmy over the winter. I ended up having to pull the heads and have a valve job done. Now that it has functional heads again I'm reassembling everything so I can get it out of my shop and get back to my own projects. I've run into a problem: I can't get the power steering pump bolted back up to the bracket. First I tried installing the bracket with the pump outside of it and working the pump up under the bracket. That didn't work. Next I tried taking the bracket back off the block and head, putting the pump under the bracket, and reinstalling it. I couldn't get the pump lined up properly so that I could bolt it to the bracket. A mounting stud on the back of the pump hit the block next to the freeze plug and wouldn't let the pump rotate so it was flush with the front of the bracket. I took the bracket back off and moved the pump so that the stud would clear the freeze plug and put the bracket back on but when I did that the pump was in the way of installing the bolt behind the pump that goes into the head.

I'm stuck now and can't figure out how to get the pump into the bracket and the bracket onto the block and head. Is there some kind of special trick to it?

 

A tire tool and some room to pry. You may be able to bend the bracket enough to slip it back in. Worst case scenario, take the bracket off, and reinstall it with the power steering pump in place. Drivers side work is always a pain when doing exhaust manifold gasket replacement because of that damn bracket being in the way! lol

 

Yesterday I tried prying on any surface I could get a pry bar onto and didn't get anywhere with that. The power steering fluid line on the back of the pump sticks out far enough that I can't get the pump to turn and go up into position. My next thought is to remove the bracket again and install one of the pump-to-bracket bolts on the front of the bracket and then put the bracket on the engine. With only one bolt holding the pump on I might be able to maneuver the pump around enough to install the bracket bolt that goes behind the pump.

This all has me wondering if GM shouldn't have maybe mounted the pump rotated another five degrees so it was out of the way of that bracket bolt. That certainly would have made it easier to put all of this back together.

 

I GOT IT!!!!!!!!!!

And, for posterity, here's how I did it:

The trick that I discovered is to put the lower left bolt through the bracket and into the pump before mounting the bracket on the front of the block. That allows the pump to line up with the block so the hoses on the back won't interfere with the freeze plug on the front of the block. Once the bracket is on the studs coming out of the block and head, remove the one bolt holding the power steering pump onto the bracket. That will allow the pump to drop just enough to clear the bracket bolt behind the pump. Install that bolt and tighten it down. Then raise the pump back up and put the pump bolts back in. Put in all of the bolts and nuts to hold the bracket onto the head and block.

I've been struggling with this conundrum for several days and I'm hoping that in the future I can save others from the same struggles.