Doing a water pump on a 01 chevy impala wit a 3.8. and the last dam bolt on the pump is right in line wit the p/s pully , and not where the holes would normaly line up wit it but its right on the rib line. i tryed to drop the 2 front dog bone motor mounts & pull the right front tire, to get more space to yank off the pully to get to the bolt, but i cant get the eng. to move more than half an inch. What the hell was chevy thinking. sorry for no caps but my hands are covered in grease. Please help...Thank you

Remove the PS pump without disconnecting any lines and just move it aside enough to get the water pump out.

It is very easy! Take off belt by putting a wrench or socket on tensioner pully and rotating it. belt will come right off. You will have to drain coolant. then take out all of the bolts holding the water pump on. you will have to remove the power sterring pump to get to the very back bolt. Make sure you clean old gasket off of the motor and install new gasket with sealer. reassemble in reverse order.
On '98s at least there is an access hole in the p/s pulley that gives you access to that last bolt
I found no access hole except through the power steering which was easier to remove than the PS pully that a pully remover does not have sufficient room. Two bolts top and bottom through the access holes for the PS pump and it is out of the way of the last water pump bolt.

The water pump is on the top right hand side of the engine if you standing on the passenger side looking at the front of the engine. Keep in mind that the water pump only goes back on one way, so make sure that you have it clocked right or the bolts wont line back up. Remove the water pump pully first before you take the belt off. This makes it easier to break the pully bolts loose and then remove the water pump bolts. Then after, put the pully back on and then the belt and then tighten the pully bolts, the belt will help hod the pully for you.

You may have to remove the pump...
BUT , maybe not...
The pump pully has holes in it... with the power steering belt loose or off ... turn the pully to see if the holes will allign with the bolt you are trying to remove... if not... then the power steering pump must be removed to gain access to the last bolt..

yes it is a special tool wit a holding fixture so u can break it loose.

great problem this ,either put a big screwdriver through a hole and jam it up ,if no hole or offrice then use a big pair of super snap on water pump pliers

yes

Im not sure what engine you have since this information was not provided. But the Power Steering Pump pulley usually has some 'holes' on the pulley in which you can get a wrench through to loosen and remove the bolt.

I'm not so certain you need to take that pulley off to get the water pump off. All the bolts should be accessible. Aren't there holes in the pulley that line up with any hidden bolts in behind? GM is well known for doing that. Rotate the pulley until you can sneak a socket through the pulley hole and get onto the bolts you need. (Unless this is a different design).

3.1 V6's are not hard to do. If you stand infront of the car on the passanger side follow bottom radiator hose that is the water pump. There are 4 or 5 bolts holding the pully on do not take belt off yet. Break looses the bolt's first. Pull the pully off there will be at least 4 bolts holding the housing on remove them you will loose about a glass of water. Pull the old water pump out and put new one in make sure you use blue silicone or something similar for water put silicone on water pump make sure holes line up on the gasket when you put it on the pump let sit for 5 min. put silicone on other side of gasket put it right one don't let site reassemble everything and your good to go.