Oil Pump O-Ring
- Thread starter HOTLNC
- Start date
HOTLNC
LOD Officer
Well, I started the O-ring replacement adventure.
I received the O-ring from Torrie (8 bucks) the other day. I put the car on the lift and scoped out the oil pump. There was no way I can get to the pump from the top. It looked it would be easier to go at it from the right side, through the wheel well.
I pulled the right wheel and tire. After removing the sheet metal screws that hold the insulation/cardboard fender liner to the fender, I was able to bend the liner back around the strut to expose the lower part of the front of the motor. Blocking everything was the large diameter crank belt drive pulley.
I relived tension from the serpentine belt and removed the belt pulley from the harmonic balancer. This exposed the oil filter fairly well.
There is a metal extension for the suction (lower) hose for the radiator right there in the center of the space. It’s blocking access to the bolts holding the oil pump to the timing chain cover. The four pump bolts are pointing forward. The filter points backwards. With that metal extension hose in the way, I can only see two bolts (the lower ones.)
So I positioned a 5 gallon bucket between the lift and the jacked up front of the car and opened the radiator drain.
While the radiator was draining, I opened the oil drain cock and started draining the oil back into the Mobil 1 quart container. The oil has about 200 miles on it. I pulled the filter off and allowed it to drain into the container.
While everything was draining I decided to call it a night.
Stay tuned for the next chapter (probably this weekend.)
I received the O-ring from Torrie (8 bucks) the other day. I put the car on the lift and scoped out the oil pump. There was no way I can get to the pump from the top. It looked it would be easier to go at it from the right side, through the wheel well.
I pulled the right wheel and tire. After removing the sheet metal screws that hold the insulation/cardboard fender liner to the fender, I was able to bend the liner back around the strut to expose the lower part of the front of the motor. Blocking everything was the large diameter crank belt drive pulley.
I relived tension from the serpentine belt and removed the belt pulley from the harmonic balancer. This exposed the oil filter fairly well.
There is a metal extension for the suction (lower) hose for the radiator right there in the center of the space. It’s blocking access to the bolts holding the oil pump to the timing chain cover. The four pump bolts are pointing forward. The filter points backwards. With that metal extension hose in the way, I can only see two bolts (the lower ones.)
So I positioned a 5 gallon bucket between the lift and the jacked up front of the car and opened the radiator drain.
While the radiator was draining, I opened the oil drain cock and started draining the oil back into the Mobil 1 quart container. The oil has about 200 miles on it. I pulled the filter off and allowed it to drain into the container.
While everything was draining I decided to call it a night.
Stay tuned for the next chapter (probably this weekend.)
HOTLNC
LOD Officer
Ok, continuing on…
I finished replacing the oil pump o-ring.
I had to remove the AC/power steering support plate that is bolted between the two aforementioned components and the water pump. This forced me to remove the water pump belt pulley. Actually, all I did was unbolt the pulley and slide it down out of the way so that I could get to the nut that is holding one corner of the plate down. This motor is so close to the frame on that side that you do not have enough room to slide the pulley off. To do that, you have to unbolt the motor mounts and push the motor over to the driver’s side. Once you have space to remove the pulley. You also can remove the water pump bolts, which are too long to move past the frame. <sigh>
Ok, now there is nothing between the oil pump and me. There are four 10mm head bolts at each corner of the pump and two 8mm bolts position in the vertical center of the pump. All the bolts are visible except for the two 10mm head bolts that are closest to the motor. The upper invisible bolt proved to be the one that was fully entrenched in Murphy’s Law. “It will only look easy.”
That bolt is very close to the block. There is not enough room between the center line of the bolt and the block to put a 1/4 inch drive ratchet on the end of the socket that is on the bolt. I tried several things. Extensions won’t work because there wasn’t enough space (the motor casting that holds the AC compressor is right there blocking the extension.) Going below that blockage would create such an angle that you could not get enough bolt head meat to loosen the bolt. Using an universal joint between the socket and the drive did not work because there was not enough depth for the combination.
What fits well and has plenty of room was a socket with a square to 1/4 inch hex converter that came with the 1/4 inch drive kit. BUT, using a flexible screwdriver, you could not get enough torque on the driver to breaks the bolt free. If a guy had a 1/4 inch Gear Wrench, that would work perfect. BUT, they don’t make 1/4 inch gear wrenches. They make a 3/16th, but that ain’t gonna get it. The smallest they make in metric is 8mm – way too big.
After a few calming breaths, I used a screwdriver in one hand to hold the 10mm socket on the bolt and the other hand to use this tiny little 1/4 inch combo wrench that had to be all of four inches in length to remove that last bolt. It was slow going but I finally loosened it enough to spin the bolt with my left fingertips. Success.
The oil pump consists of four parts, not counting the o-ring: the base, the idler gear, the driven gear and the driven gear shaft. The shaft is hex shaped and fits deep inside the motor to a matching hole that is connected to the distributor. You have to hold the driven gear in place and slide the pump housing away from the motor to take it out. The long shaft on the gear and the lack of room prevents you from pulling the pump off fully assembled.
I used synthetic grease to hold the new o-ring in place while I re-installed the oil pump. Of course I had to install the driven gear shaft into the motor first and then slide the pump housing back on. Also of course, I had to say several powerful magic words to get the gears to mesh, so that I could slide the pump housing on.
It went together faster that it came apart. The large bolts are torqued down to 240 inch pounds and the small bolts are torqued to 74 inch pounds. FIVE of the SIX bolts are torqued correctly. The last upper bolts against the motor block is torqued somewhere between 0 and 200 foot pounds, or to the bend point of the little 1/4 inch combination wrench, whichever comes first. <sigh>
Well, so far no leaks. Time will tell. If I ever have to do this again, I’m gonna have a 8mm bolts wielded to a 10 mm socket.
Maybe I’ll patent it.
I finished replacing the oil pump o-ring.
I had to remove the AC/power steering support plate that is bolted between the two aforementioned components and the water pump. This forced me to remove the water pump belt pulley. Actually, all I did was unbolt the pulley and slide it down out of the way so that I could get to the nut that is holding one corner of the plate down. This motor is so close to the frame on that side that you do not have enough room to slide the pulley off. To do that, you have to unbolt the motor mounts and push the motor over to the driver’s side. Once you have space to remove the pulley. You also can remove the water pump bolts, which are too long to move past the frame. <sigh>
Ok, now there is nothing between the oil pump and me. There are four 10mm head bolts at each corner of the pump and two 8mm bolts position in the vertical center of the pump. All the bolts are visible except for the two 10mm head bolts that are closest to the motor. The upper invisible bolt proved to be the one that was fully entrenched in Murphy’s Law. “It will only look easy.”
That bolt is very close to the block. There is not enough room between the center line of the bolt and the block to put a 1/4 inch drive ratchet on the end of the socket that is on the bolt. I tried several things. Extensions won’t work because there wasn’t enough space (the motor casting that holds the AC compressor is right there blocking the extension.) Going below that blockage would create such an angle that you could not get enough bolt head meat to loosen the bolt. Using an universal joint between the socket and the drive did not work because there was not enough depth for the combination.
What fits well and has plenty of room was a socket with a square to 1/4 inch hex converter that came with the 1/4 inch drive kit. BUT, using a flexible screwdriver, you could not get enough torque on the driver to breaks the bolt free. If a guy had a 1/4 inch Gear Wrench, that would work perfect. BUT, they don’t make 1/4 inch gear wrenches. They make a 3/16th, but that ain’t gonna get it. The smallest they make in metric is 8mm – way too big.
After a few calming breaths, I used a screwdriver in one hand to hold the 10mm socket on the bolt and the other hand to use this tiny little 1/4 inch combo wrench that had to be all of four inches in length to remove that last bolt. It was slow going but I finally loosened it enough to spin the bolt with my left fingertips. Success.
The oil pump consists of four parts, not counting the o-ring: the base, the idler gear, the driven gear and the driven gear shaft. The shaft is hex shaped and fits deep inside the motor to a matching hole that is connected to the distributor. You have to hold the driven gear in place and slide the pump housing away from the motor to take it out. The long shaft on the gear and the lack of room prevents you from pulling the pump off fully assembled.
I used synthetic grease to hold the new o-ring in place while I re-installed the oil pump. Of course I had to install the driven gear shaft into the motor first and then slide the pump housing back on. Also of course, I had to say several powerful magic words to get the gears to mesh, so that I could slide the pump housing on.
It went together faster that it came apart. The large bolts are torqued down to 240 inch pounds and the small bolts are torqued to 74 inch pounds. FIVE of the SIX bolts are torqued correctly. The last upper bolts against the motor block is torqued somewhere between 0 and 200 foot pounds, or to the bend point of the little 1/4 inch combination wrench, whichever comes first. <sigh>
Well, so far no leaks. Time will tell. If I ever have to do this again, I’m gonna have a 8mm bolts wielded to a 10 mm socket.
Maybe I’ll patent it.