Ye ole wagon is starting to take shape. The new cylinder head is finally back on, yeah for me! Just waiting on a new valve cover but putting everything back together in the meantime, sort of.

I replaced the oil pan gasket awhile ago, it was a fiasco. The Haynes manual makes it look so easy but forgets about 28 steps. I picked up a Bentley book and now it makes sense. In any event; when putting the oil pump back I forgot the 2 O-rings that go on that L shaped pipe, probably not a good thing, plus I replaced the flame trap that was cracked and should have done that with the oil pan out but didn't and now the tube snapped off and fell into the oil pan (yes I"m an idiot, thank you).

I am going to redo the front suspension, all the rubber is dry rotted and surprised there is anything left. New shocks, ball joints, yada yada.

I am figuring while I'm down there, with the suspension apart, I can drop the front cross member while having the engine supported of course and fix the oil pan mistake a whole lot easier than the first time.

My only concern is taking all that apart at once isn't going to hurt anything and as long as I have the engine supported from above I should be ok? As Haynes says, installation is the reverse of removal.

Good idea? Bad idea?

 

two days ago at my local junk yard...I was after an M46 with od and found one on a wagon BUT...!

did not have a long enough extention to remove the top two bell housing bolts....SO i did this

1) undo the control arm bolts that connect to the crossmember...nothing happened..a little drop.
2) removed the two bolts on both sides of the control arms/crossmember/fenders? the whole engine fell half way.NO SUPPORT...convenient for me at the junk yard...bad for you....BRAKE LINES BENT..STEERING COLUMN WAS SUPPORTING ENGINE AND PUT A TON OF STRESS ON THE COLUMN UJOINT....OBVIOUSLY YOU WILL SUPPORT IT...BUT I HAD NOTHING WITH ME TO SUPPORT IT WITH...I DON'T REMEMBER SEEING ANYTHING GIVE WAY OR FALL OFF AFTER I TOOK OFF THE CROSS MEMBER BOLTS ONLY. Everything fell after I took off the fender bolts and steering column ujoint.

cars at the junk yard are supported at the 4 jack locations and lifted a good 2.5 feet off ground.

 

Hmmm, no I'm frightened lol

I think I might be ok though. Taking out the control arms bolts might be all I have to do if it dropped a little.

The Bentley book actually says to disconnect that U-joint at the steering pinion probably for the exact reason you're talking about. It might be possible to just disconnect the u-joing and control arms and that drop plus raising the engine a touch might be enough to make it 10X easier than before. Worst case with it supported I can drop the cross member worst case and work fast to get it done. Oddly enough Bentley doesn't mention anything about disconnecting the control arms. I'm putting the head on and I can hold off on the timing belt and get a jack with some wood and support the engine a little extra at the crankshaft pulley.

I just need to get the cross member out of the way enough to get the pan out. The way I did it last time (they Haynes way), was an absolute nightmare. Had to rotate the pan and get up to the oil pump bolts and take the pump off at the same time. Pan came out - with a lot of twisting, turning and cursing. Putting it back in was twice the nightmare, trying to get the oil pump and the delivery pipe back in place while putting the bolts in with your hand halfway in an oil pan that is 1/2 in to begin with took awhile.

Unfortunately I have to do this again, with those O-rings missing I'm pretty sure the oil pressure would be lacking. The broken hose thing I'm not that concerned about but it could get in the way of the pickup on the pump.

 

The Haynes way sounds freaking horrible and I would rather do a head gasket job than an oil pan gasket....

If the Bentley manual stated that you needed to undo the steering column ujoint....it makes good sense since I saw how the ujoint held up the entire engine+trans attached still...'WITH THE EXCEPTION THAT I DID NOT SUPPORT THE ENGINE ANY WAY....IF I HAD DONE SO, THE BREAK LINES WOULD HAVE NOT BENT TO A BREAKING POINT...BUT THAT WAS NOT MY GOAL...I DID NEEDED TO LOWER THE ENTIRE ENGINE....SO I THINK THE BENTLEY WAY, WITH SUPPORTING THE ENGINE, WOULD WORK FINE.

 

Yeah I'm disliking Haynes more and more, but unfortunately it's the only thing available on a lot of cars.

The brake lines are my biggest concern when dropping the cross member. It doesn't have to come all the way out I don't think, but snapping brake lines is not something I want to do.

This was supposed to be out of the garage by Xmas last year lol but between work and stuff like the first oil pan fiasco it took a little longer lol

 

if you support the engine the brake lines won't bend or brake.....on the junk yard car they did because of not supporting the engine....I could have taken out the cross member with out breaking anything "if I would have supported the engine...

I am sure you will be ok once you secure the engine and remove the engine mounts...I will be at the junk yard this monday and will take a look at the wagon I was pillaging for problem areas.

 

Success!

Oil pump is now refitted with proper O-rings and all the junk is out of the oil pan.

I did disconnect the steering U-joint and the cross member as per the Bentley manual which made working on the pump a whole lot easier, still a bit of a pain but did everything by myself from start to finish in about 2 hours. Still couldn't figure out how to get the damn oil pan out totally without taking the pump off but screw it, it's done.

I did take the crossmember bolts off and I took the ball joints & disconnected the outer tie rods to get a little more play with it too. With the engine supported it worked well with no worries of anything falling on my head, at least I'm dumb enough not to worry.

I did also disconnect the power steering hoses, the pressure hose was leaking and it looks like it had a leak and someone did a horrible job of fixing it. Almost looks like they took a bigger hose, put it over top of the leak and clamped it, so it will need replacing. Good news is I found a 240 at a pick and pull that still has one (my first pick and pull visit, I'm hooked lol).

Now, my only 1 problem is getting the steering U-joint back onto the shaft . I only disconnected the lower bolt and slid the joint up off the shaft (as per Bentley). Getting it back on has been a problem.

Any advice?

Oh and did have my passenger side inner tie rod pretty much slap the floor when I took the outer tie rod off, think it needs replacing? lol

 

congrats....!

how did you support the engine? I got to do the same nightmare.
definitely need to unscrew the outer ball joint nut....

was at the junk yard took, took out a transmission on an 87 to get the clutch and stuff
...3 hours later....total disaster!!!! the disk was paper thin...

on the steering ujoint...hard to just shove in? if so, what about taking the other side out.

any pictures on the ride?

 

I used an engine support bar I got from Harbor Freight on sale for like $60. It works well for what I need it for but had to upgrade the chains.

It really was surprisingly pain free, but taking all that stuff off you have the feeling that the entire front end might just fall apart like in a bad movie.

The steering knuckle was tough getting off but once the cross-member was off it was easy, I tried to get it lined up as I was securing it back up but near impossible with that U-joint and one person. I'm thinking lots of lube and work it until it's in, will keep you posted. I also recommend taking those power steering lines off, as they keep the cross-member kind of attached a bit too. I'm heading out today to try to find a new pressure hose, there was one at the place I was yesterday but didn't think about it (didn't work on the car until after), see if the place today has any 240's and such (have to take the wife out to lunch........sigh).

Never ever going to mess with an oil pan again, if it needs a gasket I'll work it out some other way. lol

I'll get pics up once I get her out of the garage finally, was hoping by today but looks like next week, she'll be basically totally rebuilt. Put more money into it than it's probably worth (only paid $800 for it) but it's been my "training car" figuring out how all this stuff works.