1979-1993 & 94 Conv [Subscribe to Daily Digest] |
Yes, it can be done. I did my son's car in his frat parking lot a couple weeks ago. You will need a new seal, and a new oil pump o-ring. You will also need a 1/2" drive socket (27 or 30 mm depending on year) that is cut down so you can actually get it on the crank shaft nut between the motor and the firewall--not much clearance there. And you will need a small 1/4" drive ratchet with a stubby 10mm socket. You will also need some means to lock the flywheel in place. You'll need a breaker bar, or a length of pipe you can slide over the handle of your ratchet to get additional leverage. I used a 2' length of pipe. Also get a can of aerosol parts cleaner.
With the belts still on the car, loosen the 4 10mm bolts holding the pulley on the water pump. Then remove all the belts from the car. Then remove the water pump pulley. Then take out the upper bolts on the AC compressor bracket and loosen the lower bolt and flip the AC compressor back on top of the fresh air intake out of the way. Now remove the AC belt pulley on the harmonic balancer. It is held on with 3 10mm bolts. You can just about get the small ratchet with the stubby socket in there. You may need to rotate the crank to access all the bolts. You'll be working by feel mainly. If you can get the flywheel locked down (obviously you'll need to remove a bunch of stuff up front to remove the flywheel cover to get access) then you can slide the ratchet on the crank nut, slide your length of pipe on the ratchet and have at it. If you are standing on the driver's side of the car, pull towards you. If you don't have a way to lock down the flywheel, you can use the motor to loosen the nut. Put the ratchet on the nut and put the ratchet handle down near the steering rack. Slide the pipe on from underneath, so it is resting on the underside of the frame and bump the starter. Be sure that you have disabled the injectors and the coil so that the motor doesn't start. Once the bolt is loose, you can just turn it out by hand and pull off the harmonic balancer. Spray the area around the oil pump with the parts cleaner so that you get rid of any gunk that will make it hard to cleanly remount the oil pump, then remove the bolts holding the oil pump on. There are 8 or so 10mm bolts and 2 12mm bolts. be sure to note their placement. The oil pump also has 2 alignment pins that will make it hard to just pull off once you have the bolts out. At the top of the oil pump there is a little recess that you can get a large flat-bladed screwdriver into. Twist the screwdriver to get it started off. Then you should be able to use the screwdriver at either end of the pump to pry it the rest of the way off. Do each side a little at a time until you have it off. You want it to come off straight. Try not to gouge the mating surfaces. Once it is off, you can check the condition of the oil pump, clean things up, replace the main seal, put on the new o-ring, pack the pump with vaseline (to be sure it primes when restarted), make sure all surfaces are clean and reinstall it. The large ring of the oil pump has a small tick mark on it. That tick mark faces outward. The inner ring has a keyway that needs to fit the key on the crank shaft. Make sure everything is lined up before you try to put the oil pump back on. I sprayed the oil pump with tacky spray gasket to be sure that the o-ring stays in place during reinstallation. If it comes out of the groove and gets pinched funny you will not have oil pressure. The harmonic balancer just slides back on. A little vaseline on the inner and outer surfaces makes sure it slides easily. Be sure that it slides on all the way. It also has a keyway that you need to align. If it doesn't slide on easily, you are misaligned--don't force it, or use the crank bolt to push it on. It should just slide on easily by hand. Put the crank bolt back on and tighten to specs in the Bentley manual. The rest of the reinstall is opposite of removal.
BTW, if you were doing this to a car with an auto transmission, you can lock the flywheel by sliding a long socket through the access hole in the engine cover below the starter and engaging one of the bolt heads that hold the torque converter to the flex plate. That way you don't have to pull all the parts out up front to remove the flex plate cover.
posted by 69.205.5...
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