Installing O-rings in Oil filter L-adapter

I have a 95 w/ a 4.0 HO. It is leaking oil where the L-adapter for the oil filter meets the block. I let it idle and it drips at a rate of about 1 drop/sec. I bought the 3 o-rings from the dealer and I am trying to install it. I dropped my oil and filter but cannot get the t-60 torx bolt out. Does the bolt go a different direction (righty tighty) or is there another step I am missing? I have dropped my oil twice in three days trying to fix this. Help me out before I waste any more oil!

I changed mine out a few years back and I'm fairly sure it is a standard thread. I have a block out in the garage that I can check for sure. That torx bolt can be a pain if I remember.
Dave

DaveB said:

I changed mine out a few years back and I'm fairly sure it is a standard thread. I have a block out in the garage that I can check for sure. That torx bolt can be a pain if I remember.
Dave

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There is not much room there. Does the whole bolt come out and is there room for it? I tapped the t-60 out of the socket and tried just using an adj. wrench with it. I didn't put that much pressure on it because I was afraid to break something expensive. Dave, did this fix the leak. I am going crazy because oil is leaking all over my tranny, exhaust, skid plates, etc. The oil smokes when it hits the exhaust and is really embarrasing.

You're right, there's not much room in there.

On my 94, it took a bunch of torque to finally get it spinning. IIRC, mine is an allen head, I used an allen wrench with a long breaker. Once the threads come out of the block, you'll remove the L-adapter and the through-bolt as a unit, you won't have enough room to pull the bolt out first.

I did this two weeks ago on my 96. The torx bolt turns in the normal direction.
It took more effort than I thought it would to get it off. Needed to remove the smaller motormount bolt that gets in the way. The only angle that worked for me was to work from under the truck which only gave me a few inches to move the breaker bar which flexed almost that much while I pulled on it. I found a 3/8 torx 60 bit and used a 3/8 breaker bar with a 18" piece of 3/4" emt pipe as a cheater. Laid pressure on and off until it came free. Not a big deal after that. I saw a thread about pounding down on the oil filter to break it loose. Might work but only move the filter an inch or so to avoid screwing something else up. I think once you break the tension on the oring seals on the bolt the bolt will unscrew.
Good luck! -greg

After I did mine it did not leak anymore. We also did one on my son in law's 95 XJ and also stopped the leaks. We ended up messing up the torx so we put in an older bolt from a 92 which had a better head on it.
Dave

I am not ready to put in the o-rings now because I just put some nice 4x4 synth oil in my motor and I don't want to waste it. I'll just wait until it all leaks out and then do it. In the mean time, can I seal it with some RTV for a temporary fix? Will the RTV hold any pressure? Maybe I'm just lazy.

The only oil you will loose is whats in the filter,1 qt at most.changing the o-rings and adapter will not drain the pan.
Wayne
I need to do mine

You don't need to remove the oil filter until you loosen up the bolt. So you won't waste any oil until success is assured.

If you loosen the motor mount bolt it and jack that side of the motor up a little you can get more clearance. With the oil filter off you COULD use a small pipe wrench on the head of the torx bolt. I did that on mine. I used a small piece of conduit for extra torque and it went reasonably easy. If you mess up the torx stuff you will have to do that anyway. Once you have it out it will take a few minutes to do the change over and like others have said, you will only loose a quart so do it before you run 6qts. on the ground.
HTH