umc276

Heard a slight noise from the front of engine that I was sure was caused by a bad fan bearing. But after removing fan, power steering and alternator belts, found that it was coming from under the center timing belt cover.

Removed covers and loosened belt tension and was surprised to find that the water pump pulley had quite a bit of play. But there was no leak at all.
No,the pulley is not loose on the shaft, the bearing is bad. (No scrapping marks on block.)

I read that the pump should be checked every couple of years by looking for drops of coolant from the weep hole but this might not be enough. If the bearing seizes, probably would overheat before the belt wears through, but if belt breaks .

By the way, did not want to wait for the UPS truck, so to lock the flywheel I used a 6" piece of 1" angle iron with a 1/4" wide 30 degree bend at the center of angle iron so pressure was exerted on the bottom land of the gear not the tooth.
Passenger side removing, flipped over to driver side to tighten. Minimum wedge pressure secures angle iron.

Mrmerlin

that looks like a rebuilt pump glad you found it in time.
Call Roger and order a new Laso water pump.

See if Roger has any Greg Brown clutch slave flex lines from the sway bar mount to the slave and swap it in as well