alright, I was asked to replace the water pump on a 1996 SSE bonneville. I have been reading about the pump replacement and know about swinging the power steering pump out of the way. What else should i keep in mind when doing this?

things i had in mind: what to do with belt? just loosen it or just remove the pump while its on? i'm assuming i will have to refill the system after doing this. i have read conflicting reports of whether or not i will need to jack up the motor and remove mounts. so that would be really helpful.

also any diagrams/ pics of the engine bay would be great, as the car is 5 hours away and i will just be doing it when i visit their house.

If it were me, I would take the belt of the pulleys to remove tension, though it doesn't have to come completely off, obviously. Remember to remove the 4 bolts from the pulley, before you remove the belt.

Other than that it'* a pretty straightforward task. I prefer to remove the front pass. tire for easier access, though some have said it'* not necessary.

You will want to take off the PS pump, by turning the PS pulley to access the two bolts holding it on.

Then you are pretty much home free.

And yes, I'd have some extra coolant with me.

Not sure about motor mounts, I know I had to do that when I changed my SSEi'* pump, but no idea if it'* different from L67 to L36.

Regardless...

After you remove the PS pump as stated above, just make sure you set it down so it'* not putting any stress on the hoses that are attached to it.

For the water pump itself... I was told it was a dry install gasket kind of thing. Which is probably true for most. But it was my first time doing this, and the pump ended up with a bad leak after I was done. So I had to do it all over again. The second time around I put on some RTV with the gasket, and it hasn't leaked since. Granted, the leaking was probably just due to me being a n00b but still, the RTV definitely didn't hurt. Especially if you end up having to remove the motor mount, you WON'T want to have to do it again

Also make sure you have ALL the torque specs for this handy.