I swear before God, if someone could produce the idiots that designed this, so I could smack pudding out of them, I would give a week's salary!
OI mean seriously.....why in the f*** didn't they just put the nut on the FRONT like normal people? I have NEVER seen something like this, and I've worked on Fords, so I;ve seen some hokey crap.
I *finally* got the thing loose. I ended up putting a short 12mm socket on a short 3/8 drive extension, putting that on the nut on the backside, then squeezing my air ratchet down from the top, then attaching the air hose. At first, it was so tight that the air ratchet wouldn't loosen it, but it finally came loose. Then of course I ended up just taking the top bolt completely out because the adjuster wouldn't release far enough (or at least fast enough for me after getting pissed).
Then of course the coupling on my air hose came apart in half a dozen pieces, and I somehow lost the spring in it.
So then I figured the pulley/fan will come right off....oh no, not so fast! I had to use a flat screwdriver and a hammer to tap in between the clutch shaft and pulley and wiggle it off there, and *finally* it come off there.
Doesn't seem to be any play in the fan clutch, and it's nice and tight, but I'm going to price a new one, and also look at an electric fan.

The stupid part? The water pump is fine....nothing wrong with it at all. I just had to replace that freaking stupid hose, so I figured I would be nice and replace all the hoses, the thermostat, and the water pump.

So far this is going over like a pork chop at a barmitzfah.