Hi all,

I'm running a '97 R50 pathy, its a bit old and has a few miles on it it (about 200,000) but it still goes and i can swing a spanner so we fit together pretty well!

So, having used this forum to identify an oilpan leak (rather than rear main seal- thanks smj999smj, i'm hoping you can help on this too!), I removed the front diff, left and right trans casing braces and starter motor. Then i jumped the gun a bit and seperated the 'pan from the engine. And now its probably obvious to those of you who have done this job before that i did not remove the front crossmember. Which brings me to my next question-

How do you support the engine whilst remving the crossmember? I can't see any points around the head/block that i can sling from- is there a bracket with an eye on it that you attach somewhere?

Do you HAVE to take the crossmember out to get the 'pan out? Or can you sling the engine, undo the mounting bolts and lift it to get enough clearance on the crank to get it out?

I must admit i started this job thinking it would be a relatively simple one- It's only an oilpan, right?

If the crossmember has to come out, so be it- Its slinging the engine that seems to be posing more of a problem right now

All this comes after changing the lower ball joints (i dont know if that's what you fellas over there call them- its the ones on the bottom of the front hubs), and it looks like all the work i did yesteday is gonna have too be done again! Should've read the manual first i suppose...

Sorry to go on a bit, thanks for reading this far! Well, those of you that did!

Any help will be greatly appreciated- I'm hoping there's some trick o' the trade that will get me through this!

Thanks again

It's been awhile, but IIRC, there is a small crossmember that runs under the front of the engine that has four bolt/nut assys. to remove and it slides out from under the engine. Then, you remove the left and right motor mount bolts or nuts and can either lift up the engine from the top or jack up under the trans bellhousing to lift the engine and give enough clearance to remove the pan. I usually go with the later, but I have the vehicle on a hoist in a shop.

Thanks for your reply, I haven't posted anything until now as I was waiting until after I had done the job.

I did sling the engine, by the large pulley bracket (it had two bolts that looked up to the task).

The front crossmember however, was a bit more than first thought- The engine mounts were supported by the whole assembly. I did look for the small, easy to remove 'member but it may be on a later model. Gah.

So, I had to disconnect the UJ on the input spline on the steering rack, and remove the 4 bolts at the front, but also the 4 bolts that hold the wishbone pivot bracket on to the main chassis (the rear of the wishbone that is). Having disconnected the sway bar from the 'dogbone' links i was able to drop the whole rack, crossmember and all down enough to get the 'pan off. Phew.

2 new crank seals, a load of sealant and a bit of help from my italian housemate ("Heeey passay meo the spanner, eh?") and it's all back together. I haven't put any oil in yet- leaving it a couple of days to cure just to be on the safe side. I do not want to do this job again!

The diff is still out as i knew it needed a new input drive seal. That's next then it goes back in!

I never would have guessed that this much work was needed just to replace an oilpan seal! But hopefully it is fixed- there's a nice bead of sealant around the whole pan lip so i'm pretty confident.

Thanks again for the advice- Maybe some other people have done this job without as much trouble as i have- I'd like to hear how!