I have heard of people doing the head O-ring on the car, I would think it would be a little scary and probably messy, but sounds like it was not that bad? Ngoma and I did a couple on the bench some years back using a similar method (masking tape around the head, cut old seal and stretch new one on w/o pulling head all the way off) but have a lot easier access with the pump sitting on a table.
Don't you think that in theory you could remove the pump, replace shaft seal, and reinstall on the motor, without having to re-time it, if you took bracket off with it? With all the tools I think it would still be faster to take pump off separate and then re-time because dealing with those bracket bolts behind the IP is such a hassle, but if you didn't have the tools (and knew it was already in time), I think you could get away with it...
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