Day 3:
We started the project on Thanksgiving Thursday and Friday. We took Saturday off to recoup. Sunday, day 3, was just on of those days when thing didn't go as planned. We attacked the front of the engine and went after the water pump/fan/fan clutch. Last water pump I changed, was fairly easy by removing 4 bolts from the water pump pulley and the fan came off with the pulley. Much to my surprise, those 4 bolts stopped at the fan clutch and the fan was connected to the water pump shaft with a bolt larger than our largest wrench. After trying various methods including what I'm ashamed of - Vice grips, we took a trip to the part's store. The store didn't have a standard wrench large enough, but did have a "specialty tool" designed for the Ford fan bolt. After getting back and trying our "specialty tool", I finally read the back of the package that didn't list the '99 Ford - in other words the darn thing wouldn't fit! Fed up, we went to the house and grabbed a plumber's pipe wrench which worked quite nicely.
After celebrating our success of that single bolt, Toni attacked the front of the engine from the top, and I attacked the front from below. From below, I was able to pull the power steering pump on the driver's side and the air conditioner compressor on the passenger's side. We did not disconnect the hoses to these components and hung them by bailing wire to the frame out of the way.
Lessons learned:
Be prepared for that BIG bolt on the fan. Remove the fan bolt before removing the belt so the shaft doesn't rotate easily (we removed the alternator and belt in order to remove the intake manifold)
Power steering pump: I used an end wrench for the mounting bolts. After I removed the bolts I discovered the pulley has a hole to allow a socket to access the bolts.
A/C compressor: The compressor wiring from the harness originating on the top side is routed between the mounting bracket and the compressor. The wiring can not be removed without removing the compressor. The compressor has three mounting bolts on the side of the compressor. Two are easily accessible, the third towards the top/rear not so.
In ways the motorhome is easier to get to parts that would be inaccessible on a car:
