I learned what PITA meant today!

well i just finished doing my rear main on my 90 with 3" and 31's

WHAT A PAIN IN THE A$$

but i can't imagine how much worse it would have been without the knowledge i find here, some issues i had were clearance with my steering stabilizer and i had to drop my sway bar down to get a lil extra room to slide the pan out. by far the hardest part was cleaning the oem gasket off of everything, and the second most PITA was getting my 1 peice gasket to stay in place while i got the pan lined up, i ended up blotting the block with red rtv and bolting the gasket into place and letting it dry for about an hour

all total it took me about 7 hours to do with me taking about 45 minutes for a lunch break and running to true value to get some new pan bolts (must have kicked them to god knows where)

anyways my real point of this thread is to thank everyone who has helped me as far as advice and all the good writeups i found while searching

so thanks to all that are so very gracious to offer sound advice

I had a guy I know at work that asked me to help him find an inexpensive XJ. He didn't want to go over 3000. I found 2 cream puffs for about 3500. He opted for one that was 2000 and then bragged to me about how much of a smokin deal he got. Couple days later he told me that the guys at the quick lube did a 75 dollar oil change for him and then informed him that his rear main and transfer case were leaking. Then he wanted to know if I would do it for him.

Atleast it's done man. I know big jobs bring the suck but a few days later I always get such a sense of accomplishment out if it.

Glad it turned out good for you.

Just out of curiosity just want to know what the deal is with my chilton recommending the use of liquid soap on the outside of the main seal(the part that contacts the oil pan)?Does that help the seal slide in better or what?Why wouldn't you use rtv around that part instead of the soap?

I hope you had some heat. I had to turn off the gas to my shop due to a leak thursday afternoon. By friday anything that could freeze did. I worked on my heep today and froze my a$$ off. I'll have to fix the heat sunday. I hate the cold.

jeepdeepfreak said:

Glad it turned out good for you.

Just out of curiosity just want to know what the deal is with my chilton recommending the use of liquid soap on the outside of the main seal(the part that contacts the oil pan)?Does that help the seal slide in better or what?Why wouldn't you use rtv around that part instead of the soap?

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The soap is to make the new seal slide in easier. I don't recommend it though. I always use a light film of 3-in-1 oil. It works just as good as the soap, but won't contaminate your oil if it gets into it.

The following is something I read but I'll be dammed if I can remember where...
When replacing the RMS:
"If you remove the top bolts on the front shocks then put jackstands under the "frame" this will let the front suspension drop @ 3" 4" and will make it easier to get the oil pan out"
Anybody prove this or disprove this????

churky89 said:

The following is something I read but I'll be dammed if I can remember where...
When replacing the RMS:
"If you remove the top bolts on the front shocks then put jackstands under the "frame" this will let the front suspension drop @ 3" 4" and will make it easier to get the oil pan out"
Anybody prove this or disprove this????

Click to expand...

I pulled the pan off a stock 96 and in my case it would take more then just the shocks, we tried that. Maybe the sway bar also. We finally got it back on before resorting to that though. I was afraid with the rust the sway bar brackets would break.

JoBo

xray said:

I hope you had some heat. I had to turn off the gas to my shop due to a leak thursday afternoon. By friday anything that could freeze did. I worked on my heep today and froze my a$$ off. I'll have to fix the heat sunday. I hate the cold.

Click to expand...

oh yeah heat was on it got to about 65* in the garage!