Impact driver and impact wrench are different things too. An impact driver is a sort of screw driver which you hammer the back of and it imparts a short but strong twisting motion while being driven downward. When used on Phillips screws, this reduces the likelihood of the bit camming out of the head of the fastener. I do feel that this terminology has been muddied recently with cordless impact wrenches becoming more popular.

For the two bigger bolts at the rear of the differential directly to the frame, on my '87 and both my '88's, one side the nut was welded to the frame and on the other side the nut was separate. I've heard different stories from other people for other years, not sure how accurate that is though. I don't remember ever struggling with those bolts though even with only a decent breaker bar. I've never had to heat those. Hardest part is getting the wrench on the nut on top to stay in position and not fall on your face.

If you are heating anything, you want to heat as close to the thread interface as possible. Heating the head of a long bolt will do nothing to loosen the bond between the threads at the opposite end. It actually may make it worse since the metal is softer when hot and you're more likely to round the head. Same with penetrant. Spraying the head of a bolt with penetrant will not likely do anything. You want to spray the threads.

 

Yes, that is true re the impact driver (I have had to use one of those a few times). However, the cordless Makita I use to drive screws is also advertised as an impact driver. Then of course there is the impact wrench that we were talking about earlier. I think there are too many impact tools! Anyways, those bolts at the back are verticle (I think perhaps going into a nut up top that is welded in). I did endeavour to spray some PB plaster at the top. Heating up there will be impossible and as you say, heating the bolt head isn't going to help. So I will just endeavour with a longer breaker bar to see if I can make it happen. Will I likely need to loosen that one bolt at the front of the differential that fastens it to a mount? I did include a picture above.

 

Yeah, I know some of those tools are advertised as impact drivers, that's why I said the terminology is getting muddied. It seems incorrect to me but I'm not in charge of the dictionary.

Of the few times I've removed or lowered the front differential, I've always had to remove the front bolt from the differential to the crossmember. I've found it's usually a pain to get everything back together so I generally find other ways to accomplish jobs that don't require removing or lowering the front differential.

 

Now you have me worried. I was lead to believe the way to get to this oil pan was to lower the differential.

 

Is IS the way. The first time, or two are the hardest. I've done it so many times, I can drop a front diff completely out and replace it in less than 2 hours.

Lowering one so that the oil pan might come out takes substantially less work than that. You just need the right tools.

 

It is the only way. That's why I avoid removing the pan if possible.

 

You'll get it!

 

It's not bad once you've done it...
it's a big bolt, use whatever size breaker bar you need, or a 1/2 drive impact .
I busted a 1/2 drive breaker bar the first time I did mine, bought a heavier built breaker bar and was able to bust it loose.
Your laying down for that job
USE YOUR LEGS TO PUSH ON THE BAR your legs are much stronger and you can get more leverage...

The hardest bolt I've had to remove was one of the head bolts... took like 3 days, but I won and didn't break it off.

 

Thanks for the inspiration. I have a 24" breaker bar coming tomorrow. If that doesn't work I might get that husky impact wrench from home depot!

 

don't be afraid to add another foot of extension with a pipe that fits over the breaker bar.

 

These bolts are killers. It seems I did manage to get one of those back ones started. I had to put a breaker bar up on the top nut and a longer bar on the bolt head below. It did start to move. The one on the other side - no such look. I also got my 24" breaker on the nut side of one of those 4 cross member bolts. I then used my floor jack to push up on the end of the 24" breaker bar. The bar was bowing but didn't budge the nut. I don't have a real torch but perhaps I will try with my propane torch to see if I can make any progress with that.

 

Propane will work, it'll just take a bit longer. I usually prop the torch up with some junk to hold it just right and sit and watch it. If I'm holding it I tend to get impatient and not wait long enough. You'll get it. Whereabouts are you located? If you're close I could lend a hand.

 

Thanks for the offer but I am in the great white north (Canada). I do appreciate all of your suggestions.

 

Applied a good 5 mins of propane torch heat to one of those crossmember nuts and still unable to remove with my breaker bar. In fact I feel like I dislodged one if my ribs pushing up on that bar under the truck. That impact wrench at home depot is looking like a real possibility.

 

your continued ordeal in attempting to remove the pan is enough evidence to me that i’d only remove the timing cover by pulling the head, as i’ve done three times anyway. unfortunately, pulling the pan has taken longer than just pulling the head, and you haven’t even got it pulled yet.

based on your description of obstacles/difficulties, i’d almost consider pulling the whole engine rather than just the pan. if you cannot get the nut/bolt loose, you’ll have to do that anyway. if you break the bolt, you’ll be in for a lot more work and time.

 

Good point. Let me say that the time that has elapsed is not completely related to the time I have spent on this. Given my weather here I haven't been able to do much of anything for the last 2 weeks. However, it looks like spring may have sprung as of today and so I should be able to really get to this thing on the weekend. Although it is a pain I think that removing the pan was an important thing for me given that the plastic guides are no doubt in there and potentially affecting the oil pickup. Also, the oil pan appears to be leaking. Unfortunately for me a number of people I watched/read online seemed to be indicating the oil pan removal isn't that bad. I suppose for some people with all the necessary experience and tools that may be true. Breaking these bolts might actually be the easiest way to go (just get some new ones).

 

While waiting for the weather to warm/dry up a bit so that I can get back to this timing chain job I doused those bolts over that past week or so with wd40, pblast and liquid wrench. The other day I was finally able to crack all 6 of them loose. So today I was able to remove them and drop the differential a bit. I wasn't sure how much I could drop it without causing any problems. I started by dropping it about 2" at the front - that wasn't going to be enough, then 4" and finally almost 6". I still couldn't get oil pan out - close but not quite. I then removed one end of a shock type bar that went across at the front - as soon as i swung that bar down the pan came out the back. It is a good thing I removed that pan, it had a fair bit of the oil/coolant mixture (light brown) and many pieces of debris from the chain guides in it.

A question I have for the experts - is there a need for me to remove the oil intake unit to clean it in any way? Obviously it has been sucking up the coolant/water/oil mixture. Or is it good enough just to wipe it clean in place?

Thank you for all your tips.

 

I took mine off and sprayed it with brak-kleen inside and out. I bought a new gasket and after drying for about a week reinstalled it then the pan. No small bits and pieces were in the tube as far as I could see.

 

was it a pain at all to remove and reinstall?

 

Compared to removing the oil pan? No it was a piece of cake.