I'm in the middle of a project and need some help men.

I wanted to change the oil pan gasket in my truck. I have a service manual and am Following it. Problem is...I cant actually get the pan off. My truck is one where it does not have the access pan. What trick dont I know? Reason for dropping the pan is to clean out the sludge.

 

Did you remove the dust shield at the rear? If you don't have a truck pan, you might not have one. In any case, there are two bolts that are on either side of the rear main bearing that are often overlooked.

 

Yep. Took care of that. It seems like the tie rod is in the way Of the pan dropping. I really don't want to take that off because I just had an alignment.

 

So it's off the engine, but you can't get it out from under? Jack under the frame, until the wheels are just about to come off the ground.

If you have a car style pan (no cleanout), the oil pickup has to pass thru a hole in a windage tray that is about 3 - 4" below the pan rail. So you have to drop it straight down until it clears that.

 

You can also remove the tie rod without changing your toe setting. Simply separate it at the big single nut/steering arm at one end and let it hang down out of the way. I would try the jack trick^^^^ first though.....

 

Thanks for your help Ross and Scott. My father in law actually found that in the 54 supplement it states you need to drop the oil pump and make sure the number 1 cylinder is at top dead center.


Tackling this tomorrow and will report back.

 

Ah, because '53's have the center mount.... I can see why you need to be at TDC on #1. I can't see why the oil pump needs to be dropped, tho.

 

To report back, this is awful. We dropped the pan but were not completely able to remove it. We dropped the oil pump and and sump and cleaned the sump. We were able to tilt the pan enough to clean the sludge out but the pan stayed stuck under the truck.