My oil leak adventure...thanks Mud! (1 Viewer)

[joelontheroad]

Because my '96 cruiser with 280K miles has had a piston knock for the past 40K miles, I thought I'd drive it until it died. But it hasn't. So, I decided to revive it by fixing all the things I've put off. The engine knock occurred because I couldn't keep oil in it. I know I'm going to have to rebuild or swap the engine at some point, but I thought if I'd fix some of the issues on this one, I'd buy some time. Which means a new front seal, distributor o-ring, and oil cap gasket. This write up adds some information on those three items that others may find useful.

I got my confidence up by doing a front brake job a few weeks ago and repacking the DS wheel because it needed a new rotor. I read here on mud there are six places where 80's cruisers leak oil:

1. The front seal
2. The oil pump cap gasket (see: How to Replace Oil Pump seal w/ Pics)
3. The distributor o-ring (see: HOW TO: Replace Distributor O Ring)
4. The oil pan
5. The oil pan arch
6. The rear seal

The last three seemed hard to do because you had to support the transmission while also jacking up the engine a bit, or something like that, so I decided to do the first three because they were at the front of the engine and reassess once I was done. I read the threads here on mud and followed this youtube video by texasknowhow.

I spent a few evenings under the truck cleaning years of oil and grime using Simple Green and Simple Green Extreme Aircraft and Precision Cleaner. The only difference I could tell from the regular Simple Green and the Aircraft type is that the Aircraft type didn't have the the dye nor the fragrance.

Lying on my back, with eye protection, I sprayed the Simple Green on a part, scrubbed it with a nylon or brass brush, and then wiped it off with a shop towel. I repeated as necessary. I didn't want to use a steel brush because I didn't want to scratch anything. I also didn't want to use brake cleaner or Gumout on everything because I didn't know how rubber and electrical connections would react to that stuff and I didn't want to inadvertently poison myself. It was a dirty job, but I needed as much to be clean as I could possibly get so that I could double check my work. My power steering hoses had been leaking for a long time along with my oil leaks and the whole underside was just gunk and residue. I had my power steering hoses replaced a month earlier, so that leak was fixed.

To get at small places from the top, I screwed a brass brush on to a piece of PVC pipe and went to town:

You may be able to see the brush bettter:

To wipe up the gunk using this method, I wrapped a rubber band around a shop towel that itself was wrapped around the brush and mopped up:

I decided I'd do the following work, because I was there. Many people ask what they should if you're going in, anyway to make these repairs. This is what I decided to do. Thanks again to the advice on mud:

1. Clean up the alternator and change the brushes. (Bought new brushes from Autozone.)
2. Put on new OEM belts
3. Drain the radiator
4. Replace all the radiator hoses
5. Replace the distributor o-ring
6. Replace the oil cap gasket
7. Replace the front main seal
8. Check the water pump (by manhandling a bit to see if there was play in the bearing)
9. Check the A/C compressor and possibly change out the bearing (because it squealed and had been doing so for three years).

I enlisted the help of my 15 year old son over the holiday weekend and I was able to teach him what I knew about wrenching. The above took us three days. We're not that fast.

I had never changed or even tightened a belt on this vehicle. I'm glad I did this because I found:

1. The a/c pully was loose and that was the cause of the whining. Compressor bearing was OK.
2. The top bolt holding the alternator on was 1/4 of the way out.
3. The two transmission lines going into the cooler were loose and leaking.

I had a mechanic work on the power steering lines a month ago. This stuff was obvious to me and I'm a 1 guy. I wondered why it wasn't obvious to them? I assume they were in a hurry and forgot.

Here are the torque values for the all bolts in the above work. (I give the values in ft-lbs and inch-lbs because one of my torque wrenches is in inch-lbs.) (Oh yeah, I ended up changing all my fluids out as well a few days later.)

A/C Idler pully 29 ft-lbs 348 inch-lbs
Alternator Idler Pully 32 ft-lbs 384 inch-lbs
Alternator top bolt 43 ft-lbs 516 inch-lbs
Alternator lock bolt 15 ft-lbs 180 inch-lbs
drive belt adjusting bar with the bolt and nut. 15 ft-lbs 180 inch-lbs
Power steering pump bracket bolts ft-lbs 0 inch-lbs
Distributor hold down bolt 13 ft-lbs 156 inch-lbs
Battery tray bolts ft-lbs 0 inch-lbs
Lower radiator hose bracket 15 ft-lbs 180 inch-lbs
Radiator shroud bolts (x2) X ft-lbs 43 inch-lbs
Water pump bolts 15 ft-lbs 180 inch-lbs
Upper starter mounting bolt 29 ft-lbs 348 inch-lbs
Stearing stabilizer bolts 24 ft-lbs 288 inch-lbs
Thermostat bolts 15 ft-lbs 180 inch-lbs
Differential Drain Plug 36 ft-lbs 432 inch-lbs
Differential Fill Plug 36 ft-lbs 432 inch-lbs
Transfer case Drain Plug 27 ft-lbs 324 inch-lbs
Transfer case Fill Plug 27 ft-lbs 324 inch-lbs
Oil drain plug 18 ft-lbs 216 inch-lbs
Transmission drain plug 15 ft-lbs 180 inch-lbs
Spark Plugs 14 ft-lbs 168 inch-lbs
Brake bleeder valve 8 ft-lbs 96 inch-lbs

Here are part numbers. I got the parts at my local dealer:

Front Crank Shaft Seal part #90311-52022
Idler Pulley Part # 16603-66010 (I didn't need a new one. You might.)
Oil Pump Seal Part # 15188-66020
(Don't recall the distributor o-ring part.)

I purchased the 3/4" breaker bar at Northern Tool as well as 30mm socket so I could take off the bolt holding the harmonic balancer. I purchased a 300 ft-lb, 3/4" torque wrench from harbor freight.

More to come...

 

[joelontheroad]

First, we took out the battery and battery box. Then, we drained the radiator. Then we took off the upper and lower hoses. Next, we unbolted the fan shroud and the fan and lifted the fan through the shroud. Finally, we lifted out the fan shroud.

THE DISTRIBUTOR O-RING

So that we wouldn't have to redo the timing when we put everything back together, I marked where the distributor lined up with the engine block and I marked where the rotor attached to the distributor. Or so I thought. Actually I marked where it bumped up against a piece of plastic that rotated with the distributor, so I didn't mark it's orientation to the distributor, but I did take this picture:

Note the oil on the bottom. That was the second sign that my distributor was leaking. The first sign was oily crud on the bottom of it where it mated up with the engine block. You can also see the alternator bolt right underneath it...not seated all the way in. A failure waiting to happen.

I had to lightly tap the distributor to get it out of the engine block.

And this is what it looked like out of the engine. That black crud on the worm gear can't be a good sign. I wonder what this means is going on in the engine? The o-ring was brittle and disintegrated when I pried it off.

I cleaned up the distributor, put on the new o-ring, put some fresh motor oil around the ring, and set aside for reassembly later.


THE ALTERNATOR

Next up was removing the alternator. I disconnected the electrical connectors. I then removed the alternator pulley (which screws into the oil pump cap), the tensioner bolt (remember the orientation of the rectangular block the alternator pulley bolt goes through for when you reassemble...I was tired and took me a while to figure it out when i reassembled a few days later), and the top bolt.

The alternator is tight in its bracket, so it took some persuasion to get it to come out. I used a screw driver with a few light taps with a hammer. It's a small puzzle to figure out how to actually get the alternator out of its perch, but with the radiator hoses and fan shroud gone, I ended up tilting it and bring out through the front, right below coolant pipe. I think there may have been another way to get it out, but this was the first way that came to mind.


I then followed CruiseOrlando's Alternator Clean and Rebuild thread. I cleaned everything with electrical contact cleaner because I didn't know how anything else would affect it and didn't want to take any chances (although on the outside, Simple Green didn't seem to affect it when it was in the vehicle).

The brushes are cheap and easy to replace. I'm glad I did mine because there wasn't much left of them. They are on a spring, so as they wear, they're held in place. There wasn't much left for the spring to push. Now, with new brushes, I bet the alternator will last longer than the car itself...unless the regulator dies. But that'll be easy to replace as well. Brushes are part number 27370-75060. But I used aftermarket brushes.

I decided not to take the rest of the alternator apart, but I did clean up the windings as much as I could with the contact cleaner, hoping that was good enough. I reassembled the alternator and put it aside.

More to come...

 

[joelontheroad]

OIL PUMP CAP GASKET

Emboldened on my previous success, I attacked the first job that really gave me the willies: getting the screws off the oil pump cap gasket. According to many of the threads, the main problem is stripping the heads of the seven screws and then having to use a screw extractor and/or an impact hammer to get them out.

The problem is this: while the screws look like Philips head screws, they're not. They are what's known as Japanese Industrial Standard, or JIS, type screws. So, Philips head bits won't exactly work with them. Here's the quick story: Philips head screws are designed to "cam out," or twist out once a certain torque was reached. Back in the '30's and '40's, when they were adopted, it was felt that it was better to ruin a bolt rather than the tool.

The Japanese said, "that's crazy, you now have a bolt which will take more labor to remove." So, they created a screw -- and bit -- with more acute sides. So, to take out these JIS bolts without stripping them, you need a JIS bit, which they're not selling so much of at your local hardware store. However, I read online an anecdote from someone who said a teacher told him 20 years ago to grind of the point of a Philips head and it should work OK. So I did. The main point being, if you use a #3 Philips head, make sure it doesn't have a point. Plenty Philips head bits don't.

I went down to my local Ace Hardware and bought two #3 Philips bits. I also bought seven replacement screws: Metric Flat Head Socket Cap Screw Class 10.9 Stl, M6 Size, 12mm Length, 1.00mm pitch, aka M6 x 12 1.0 pitch. Thanks to this thread by AppleTech.

All I needed was a 1/4 inch socket, which is the size of socket the bit it in. Following texasknowhow's video, here's how it all went together:

1. Scrape out the gunk in each screwhead with a pick. (Cheap ones can be had at Harbor Freight.)
2. Tap the bit into the screwhead with a hammer and a light hand. This should give you a good grip.
3. Put the 1/4 inch socket on the bit.
4. Press against the socket head to keep the bit in place while turning the socket's handle counter clockwise.
5. Feel the joy of the screw breaking loose.

I held my breath seven times as each one those screws broke free. I was giddy when the seventh broke free as I didn't strip any of them. I could even have reused them, but decided to use the Philips heads I had purchased. (Probably better to take AppleTech's advice and buy screws with a hex head, but they didn't have those at the local Ace Hardware. If I were to do this again, I'd see what Pep Boys had; they seem to have a good selection of automotive screws on display.)

Here's what it looks like with the cover off:

You can see portions of the old seal on the lower left and left; like the distributor o-ring, it too was brittle. I cleaned out the old seal and the mating surfaces of the pump and the cover.

Again, I used Simple Green. However, there is some discussion on getting a cleaner and better surface in the threads here on Mud. There's also a discussion about using something in addition to the OEM gasket to get a more robust seal. Of particular interest is a comment by curiserdan:

Beo, If you recall, my pump cover went back on, un-lapped, with sylglide on the o ring, and over 2 years later it is still bone dry.

...As well as this comment by ElJefe:

Offshore we religiously use the Dow Corning 55 o-ring lube for every o-ring on any of the ROV's. In the hydraulic systems and for the sealing o-rings for the electronic cans. I never had one leak. The Dow 55 is incredible stuff. I'm pretty sure that you can get it at Grainger for $15-ish a tube.

You may want to consider their advice. As for me, I lubed it with motor oil and called it a day. I put a couple of dabs of vaseline in the gasket track on the motor in order to make it stay while I put the cover back on and torqued the screws using a criss-cross pattern.

Feeling good about getting those bolts off without stripping any of them, I was ready for the big kahuna: getting the pulley bolt of by bumping the starter so I could replace the main seal...

More to come...

 

[Tedward]

IF you happen to have the radiator out you can use an impact gun to remove the pulley bolt. Or you can search for the info on using a socket to hold the motor from turning over to hold the pulley whilst removing the bolt.

I said whilst. Allways wanted to try that

 

[Rusco]

"I said whilst. Always wanted to try that"

Bravo!

Joel, you're brave doing all that cleaning by hand. I'm a vile person, I use the coin-op car wash.

 

[Hornd]

Go get 3/4 Breaker & Socket Set at Harbor Freight.
Bungee Cord Wrench to underside of LH frame rail after putting on socket, you can turn crank to get orientation correct
Remove Plug at top of Distributor. Tap key and it will break bolt loose.
Get a pipe (at Home Center Store) that fits over 3/4 Breaker Bar for tightening bolt back up.

 

[PZLCruiser]

Good job! Keep at it!

 

[blkprj80]

Go get 3/4 Breaker & Socket Set at Harbor Freight.
Bungee Cord Wrench to underside of LH frame rail after putting on socket, you can turn crank to get orientation correct

Most people would call it the RH frame rail as it's on the RH side of the vehicle. Trying to avoid confusion here.

 

[Hornd]

Most people would call it the RH frame rail as it's on the RH side of the vehicle. Trying to avoid confusion here.

You are technically correct. If you standing in front of vehicle facing Windshield it will be the LH Frame Rail. If you sit in Drivers seat it will be RH frame rail. 2 ways of saying the same thing. Thanks for clarifying.

 

[BadReligion]

Nice work!! This just goes to show that even someone semi new to wrenching can tackle almost anything on an 80 with a bit of research, some good tools, the FSM, and of course the help from MUD.

 

[BadReligion]

Feeling good about getting those bolts off without stripping any of them, I was ready for the big kahuna: getting the pulley bolt of by bumping the starter so I could replace the main seal...

More to come...

Like others have said, the 3/4" HF breaker bar on the frame is the way to go. Works like a charm.

 

[downeastcruiser]

Gonna do the front seal later this week. Has anyone ever had to use a puller to get the harmonic balancer/pulley off? All the threads I have read (texasknowhow video included) it should just slide right off, correct?

 

[BadReligion]

Gonna do the front seal later this week. Has anyone ever had to use a puller to get the harmonic balancer/pulley off? All the threads I have read (texasknowhow video included) it should just slide right off, correct?

Should slide right off. Might have to give it a light tap with a rubber mallet but no puller needed. Now removing the old crankshaft seal is a different story...

 

[joelontheroad]

I can confirm what BadReligion said. The Harmonic balancer will either slide off easily or can be coaxed with some taps of a hammer.

Just bump the starter; don't keep it on for any length of time. Of course in order to do so you have hook the battery back up because the first step wad to remove it and the battery box.

 

[joelontheroad]

OK, replacing the front oil seal and loosening the Harmonic Balancer (pulley) bolt.

Put the 30mm socket on the 3/4" breaker bar and then seat it snugly on the Harmonic Balancer bolt. Make sure it's seated all the way. (BTW, it's called a Harmonic Balancer because it balances the up and down motion of the crankshaft. You'll find one to three circles on the back side that were partially drilled out in order to balance the system.) (Also, BTW, using anything smaller than a 3/4" breaker bar will most likely get you a broken tool and bolt that's still on.)

Following directions on Mud, or texasknowhow's video, tie up the breaker bar to the passenger side frame so that it won't slide up or back.

I had to unbolt the steering stablizer to get the clearance I needed. That's the horizontal, shock looking thing. I just unbolted the three bolts that go through the triangular plate on the passenger's side and let it slide onto the ground.

Then, reconnect the battery and momentarily engage the starter. It's like a burp. The engine goes clockwise as you face the front of the vehicle, but the breaker bar stays the same. The effect being, the bolt unscrews. It's an awesome feeling when it works. I'm still amazed that it works, but work it does.

Then:

1. Take out the big, honkin' bolt.
2. Slide of the Harmonic Balancer. (Tap it with a hammer if it doesn't slide off easily.)
3. Pull out the old seal. The FSM says used a big screwdriver. I couldn't get that to work because I couldn't figure out a leverage point. So, I went to the store and bought an $11 seal puller and got it out pretty easily. Buy the seal puller in advance so you won't kill your momentum.
   
4. Apply multipurpose grease to the lip of the oil seal.
5. Use a 2" pvc coupling from the local big box store to tap the seal in place. It works great.

Then, you'll slide the Harmonic Balancer back on (it'll only go one way). Finally, you'll put the big bolt back on, tightening hand tight.

Next, you'll put the 30mm socket on the big, honkin' 3/4" torque wrench. (I obtained mine from Harbor Freight.) To torque the bolt, I've heard numbers anywhere from 305 ft-lbs to 320 ft-lbs. It didn't much matter, because the Harbor Freight torque wrench only went up to 300 ft-lbs.

Now, to prevent the crankshaft from turning, you're going to have to jam it. Here's how, following texasknowhow's video:

1. Take 17mm socket and put it on a socket wrench.
2. Crawl under the car behind one of the front wheels. Look up where the transmission meets the engine. Hopefully, you'll see a trapezoidal, rubber inspection cover up there. (I thought it was really weird to see something like that.)
3. Pop out that inspection cover (you'll probably want to clean all around it, first, so no grime gets into the torque converter).
4. Snugly seat that 17mm socket on one of the bolts in the torque converter.
5. Have a buddy slowly turn the engine via the big, honkin' torque wrench until that 17mm socket prevents the torque converter from moving as gets jammed up on the passenger side of the inspection window. Have your buddy keep the tension on the big, honkin' torque wrench while slide out from under the truck and go help him.
   
6. You can now tighten the bolt with the big, honkin' torque wrench. It may take two of you, depending upon the amount of leverage you can get. Because the torque wrench we were using could only go to 300 ft-lbs, once it clicked, we went a little more.
7. Take off big honkin' torque wrench.
8. Crawl back under the car and remove the 17mm socket.
9. Replace the inspection window cover.

You are done with the front, main seal!

Now time to put everything back together. Here's the order I went through:

1. Reinstall the steering stabilizer.
   
2. Reinstall the AC compressor belt. Use OEM belts. Tighten it by making sure the pulley bolt is loose and then tighten the tensioning bolt by lying under the vehicle. Once it's tight enough, torque the pulley bolt to spec.
3. Reinstall the alternator and slide in the top retaining bolt, tightening hand tight, but don't torque it down yet.
4. Reconnect the two electrical connections to the alternator.
   
5. Put the fan belt tensioner pulley back on; it screws into the oil pump cap. Torque it down.
6. Reinstall the two fan belts. Swing the alternator as far as it'll go in the direction towards the passenger side to give yourself enough slack. When installed properly, the two belts make kind of a triangle with the Harmonic Balancer, the alternator pulley, and the tensioner pulley in each of the three corners. DO NOT put the belts on the top/passenger side of the tensioner pulley near the alternator. They go around the bottom/drivers side of the pulley. If you say to yourself, "Hey, this thing will never actually add tension to these fan belts," then you're doing it RIGHT.
   
7. Put on the fan shroud cover (the black thing that slides onto the water pump's bolts).
   
8. Reinstall the fan shroud into the bottom two clips and tilt it back towards the engine.
9. Slide the fan through the space between the fan shroud and the radiator, slip it onto the studs, and bolt it back up.
10. Screw in the bottom alternator retaining bolt. It goes into the rectangular piece that's attached to the tensioner bolt. Orient the rectangular piece so that's oriented up, rather than down, otherwise you'll go crazy trying to make something work that won't work.
    
11. Tighten the fan belts with the tensioner bolt.
    
12. Torque down the top and bottom alternator retaining bolts.
13. Reinstall distributor. It's moves 15 degrees clockwise when you put it in and 15 degrees clockwise when you take it out. This is important to know because you'll want to get it lined up exactly the way it was when you took it out. (If you don't get it right, you'll know when you start the car. You'll then need to figure out Top Dead Center (TDC) by rotating the crankshaft by hand and go from there to set the timing. Not hard, but not trivial either. Plenty of threads and youtube videos on it.)
    
14. Reinstall the battery box and battery.
    
15. Install top and bottom radiator hoses.
16. Refill radiator.
17. Start engine. (It's a magic moment when it's all back together and it starts back up.)
    
18. Turn on heater and let engine get to operating temperature.
    
19. Continue filling radiator as necessary. Squeeze top radiator hose to force out air bubbles.
20. Turn off engine.
    
21. Eyeball your work to makes sure nothings out of place.
22. Enjoy your moment of Zen.

 

[joelontheroad]

Here's what I learned throughout this process.

1. As with anything, thinking through all the steps before hand really helps.
   
2. Get all parts and tools before hand. I know, obvious, but I sure wish I had purchased that seal puller when I had the chance prior to needing it.
3. A few dabs of petroleum jelly is a great thing to use to hold things in place, like the oil pump cap gasket. Get it before hand.
   
4. Radiator hoses are a PITA to get on and off. My son didn't orient the bottom hoses correctly and then couldn't get them off to reorient them. Once I go them off, I put petroleum jelly on the sleeves they went onto so that I could slide them on and off easier. I'm not sure this is 100% kosher, but I did it anyway.
5. There is only one correct way for the steering stabilizer bar to go back on. If you get it wrong, you'll be able to turn the steering wheel through out it's whole travel going left (2 complete turns), but not completely to the right (only 1.5 turns). The solution is simple, but not obvious. Unbolt the steering stabilizer plate that attaches to the frame on the passenger side and flip it over. It's a right triangle. It's oriented correctly when the 90 degree angle of the right triangle is on the passenger side, which means the leg of the triangle that's perpendicular to the frame is pointing towards the real of the vehicle and is on the passenger side. Also, in the correct orientation, the steering stablizer stud that goes through the triangular plate is pointing up. This one one of those things that made go, "What they hey?" when I was driving the car over the subsequent day or two. Threads on Mud gave me a clue to what was going on and I tried to find photos of it on the net, but the only ones I could find were for right hand drive vehicles. I studied the orientation carefully and described the orientation in detail here so if this happens to you, it won't drive you crazy trying to figure out the solution.
6. With the right tools, parts, and technique, almost anything's possible on these vehicles.

Thanks, Mud!

 

[Rifleman]

You are technically correct. If you standing in front of vehicle facing Windshield it will be the LH Frame Rail. If you sit in Drivers seat it will be RH frame rail. 2 ways of saying the same thing. Thanks for clarifying.

To be correct, you always reference items as if your were sitting in the drivers seat. This is also very important When you go into the parts store to buy parts. Because if you need a left, or right hand part, they always reference those parts as if your sitting in the drivers seat.

 

[Hornd]

To be correct, you always reference items as if your were sitting in the drivers seat. This is also very important When you go into the parts store to buy parts. Because if you need a left, or right hand part, they always reference those parts as if your sitting in the drivers seat.

This is why I spray painted RH and LH on my fenders.

 

[PanchoLedezma]

maybe this is too late, but i saw oil inside the distributor, that probably means the inner seal is damage, and that is very hard to fix, better buy a new distributor, also the sludge on the shaft of the Dist. probably says that the engine has that sludge too, better do a motor flush a couple of times to make it better, if not the oil pressure and ducts will be compromise and maybe the timing chain will start to rattle, not to mention possible engine fail.

Great work done here!

now i wonder how many of us watched the texasknowhow video and put it into practice, lol

 

[SteveL]

One mistake you made. When you did the distributor O-Ring, put the distributor back in and tighten so the orientation does not change when you turn the crankshaft. Done this way, you can't go wrong. Texas know how did it this way, REMEMBER????