I have been in the process of changing the head gaskets on my '85 for a couple months now (between classes and other things I haven't been able to work on it as much as I'd liked). The water pump is still on the engine, but since I drained the coolant I'm wondering if the pump seals have dried out. How long can it go without having coolant flowing through it? Should I just replace it? It's only a year old.
Id risk leaving it. Water pumps are cheap and easy to swap. If it works, no problem.
it would pay thought to ....................... one bolt at a time remove and add anti-seize to each bolt.
problem with my comment here is that if you learn now that a bolt will break off, your screwed into dealing with a pump that's not broke "now".