280CE Water Pump replacement – part 1

The 280CE was leaking quite badly, and it looked like it was coming from the water pump.   I ordered a pump and not have finally started on the replacement.

First job was to drain the coolant – which wasn’t in bad condition, disconnect the radiator, and remove it.   The radiator is easy to remove with four metal clips that can be prized out, and the water and transmission oil cooler hoses.

Next is to remove the fan assembly.   This is where I had problems as two of the bolts were quite rounded and I was unable to remove them, despite grinding down various spanners etc.   Because of the position of the bolts, you cannot get a ring spanner in place, unless you grind it down, which makes these bolts easy to round.   Despite trying various other sockets and liberal amounts of penetrating oil, I was unable to get the thing removed.