Hello mechanic’s of reddit!
I am here because I screwed up.
I decided to do my own water pump thinking I promised myself I’d never let another man work on my truck again. I figured hey I’ve done this on my car before with no problem. So the mistake I made was trying to follow the special assembly instructions like an idiot and half prying off my timing cover. I went through a whole process of re-reading my Hanes book over and over again and I’m at the point now where I’m putting on the new cover. So my concern now is that I’m putting the rubber gasket in on the front of the oil pan and I’m wondering how I can make sure the seal is good without screwing anything else up. For the love of God please tell me how to put this crappy little rubber thing in without having to take anything else apart again. I have had to take way more off the front of my engine than I ever wanted to at this point considering my mechanical inexperience and I can not afford to tear this thing down again after I put it together. Help me please… I would be most thankful :)
Hello fellow Ford owner, I’m an avid Ford lover of these model years. It would help to know what engine you have on your classic truck. No time in changing a water pump have I ever had to pry a timing cover , whether it be on the 302,351,352 fe, 360fe, 390 fe, 400, 427 fe,428 fe, 429, or a 460. If you could elaborate on your engine size, and a little more detail on what happened. I will do my best to assist you.
you did forget to post which engine… the timing cover gasket sets usually have specialized gasket section for the pan connection…
many pickups are not that hard to drop the pan… sometimes you have to lift the engine with an engine support bar to get the engine up high enough to get your hands in to unbolt and drop the oil pump and oil pump drive into the pan in order to get the pan out.
some engines have a one piece oil pan gasket available…
the rubber strip… i usually glue in the bottom of the timing cover with black Super weather strip adhesive… putting some on both the timing cover bottom and the inner surface of the gasket… pushing them together… wiggling them… pulling them apart for a minute… then reinstalling the strip and pushing it into place… do not use a lot of sealer… you have to keep pushing it in place then let it dry for 10 to 20 minutes… this keeps it in place and stops it from falling out of place during installation…