Gregket1
Member
So I’m in the midst of a cam/lifter/oil-pump swap on my truck. Everything I could find about changing the oil pump on the 4x4s is ridiculous: drop the front axle, drop the cross member, raise the engine, remove the oil pickup tube and windage tray, all to get out that one stupid bolt holding the tube to the pump. 5.1 hours shop-time if you have a fully stocked shop. Yikes.
I bought everything needed to do that but really didn’t want to. I decided I would try the hemi car engine trick of pulling the bolt from above the oil pan. Getting it out I removed the chain tensioner, loosened the pump so it could be rotated a little, then a narrow open end wrench got the bolt loose and a pair of needle nose holding a rare earth magnet got the bolt out.
Getting it back in was a real pita. Needle nose+magnet saved me many times on the first day of trying by myself. I don’t think it would be doable solo. At least not for me. After sleeping on it my wife decided she wanted to try doing it together… 40 minutes later it was done. Here’s how:
She came up from below and sat between oil pump and a/c cooler. I reached over her head. We used the regular needle nose + magnet to lower the bolt into the pan and then work it up into the hole in the pick up tube. Once there I used a 90° pick in the recess of the bolt head to hold the bolt up and apply tension; my wife used very thin long nose pliers to grab the bolt by the threads until it was well started. Then back to the thin wrench.
The two of us working together, this was amazingly easy. Sure beats 5-10 hours to do it “the right way”.
I hope this helps someone in the future.
Greg
I bought everything needed to do that but really didn’t want to. I decided I would try the hemi car engine trick of pulling the bolt from above the oil pan. Getting it out I removed the chain tensioner, loosened the pump so it could be rotated a little, then a narrow open end wrench got the bolt loose and a pair of needle nose holding a rare earth magnet got the bolt out.
Getting it back in was a real pita. Needle nose+magnet saved me many times on the first day of trying by myself. I don’t think it would be doable solo. At least not for me. After sleeping on it my wife decided she wanted to try doing it together… 40 minutes later it was done. Here’s how:
She came up from below and sat between oil pump and a/c cooler. I reached over her head. We used the regular needle nose + magnet to lower the bolt into the pan and then work it up into the hole in the pick up tube. Once there I used a 90° pick in the recess of the bolt head to hold the bolt up and apply tension; my wife used very thin long nose pliers to grab the bolt by the threads until it was well started. Then back to the thin wrench.
The two of us working together, this was amazingly easy. Sure beats 5-10 hours to do it “the right way”.
I hope this helps someone in the future.
Greg
