hey everybody,

I am trying to change the water pump on my 1986 528e. My friend and I accidentally removed the bolts that hold the pulley to the water pump, so we try to stick smaller bolts in the holes to hold it still. But when we try to turn the big 1 1/4" nut behind the fan clutch, everything moves, and we can't hold the pulley/water pump still. Can anyone help me?

We began to saw off the old water pump, behind the pulley...that's how desperate we are...

not as familiar with the 2.8l but the fan always needs the fan tool to hold it in place to remove the nut.
you can improvise with a strap wrench (under $10) from a harware store and hold the plastic base of the fan while you undo the fan clutch nut.

I changed my water pump on my M20 89 525i just recently and had no problem getting the fan off by myself. With the help of a friend it should be pretty easy. One of you will need to pull on the fan belt (I used a crow bar with the hook on the end). The other will need a 22mm box end wrench (I believe that's the correct size. Anyway it's big). Once you have the wrench on the fan nut just give it a nice clunk with a hammer and it should spin loose. There are few other hoses that will need to come off but all in all, it should be pretty easy to take off after that. It's not as easy as taking off an M30 water pump but it still a relatively easy job. While you've got all that off, you may want to consider checking and replacing your timing belt and timing belt tensioner.