water pump O-ring help

[SethM]

So my new to me 1985 T4WD SR5 has sat for close to a year in my shop awaiting attention to the leaking front seals... Finally decided to tackle that job this weekend. Have the crank seal in (new one went on with only light hand pressure?? is that normal?) and will tackle the cam seal tomorrow. Got sidetracked by the recommendation from someone on here to check/replace the o-ring at the back of the water pump (between the suction housing and the block). I don't know about others but I had some difficulty just accessing the nuts that hold the heater pipe to the suction housing..... BUT my question concerns the o-ring now that I have the suction housing fully off the block. I don't see ANY of the old o-ring, just a black colored ring on both surfaces. I was expecting to see some sort of recess to hold the o-ring (on either the block surface or the suction housing surface). How does one hold the o-ring in place during re-mounting of the suction housing? Seems to me the o-ring will just slide out of place.... Any advice from folks that have done this would be a big help.

Thanks,

[SethM]

Mystery solved! Finally decided (based on the FSM) that the recess HAD to be on the block surface so took a sharp pick to what looked like a mere "shadow" of the o-ring. Took a long time but finally got a chip of the old,glazed, and rock hard o-ring out. After that, the rest of the o-ring came out pretty quickly using the pick.