Sher.
I'd never in all my decades of wrenching come across a water pump failure like that, so I had to thrash around quite a bit before it came to me. There were NO external signs of water pump failure at all- no noises, no seepage from the weep hole, nothing. I finally disconnected an upper rad hose and started it, expecting to see water shoot out all over, and water did come out but not with much force. Since I'd already R&R'd the thermostat and it passed the boiling pan test, I was at the end of my rope and decided to pull the pump... not real easy on this buggy!
Those Sables are something else; just about all the cooling system work gets done from underneath, after you pull a chin pan, inner fender, and various braces and such out.
Can't even pull the rad cap and look into the rad to see flow, blockage, etc.; the "overflow" tank takes care of all that now.