Bushings and gaskets

[Beowulf]

Trying to find the rubber bushing for lack of a better term where heater hoses and wires pass through fire wall.

Also can oil pan be removed without pulling the motor? Previous owner used clear silicone there and some red sealer on intake and exhaust 🤬🤬. Screwball!

[datzenmike]

You can remove the steering cross rod and the strut between the two lower control arms that support the torsion bars. That should clear the way to drop the oil pan.

 

 

This truck was previously owned by a chevy owner!!!! They just can't help themselves gluing their 305s together with that shit.

 

 

[Stoffregen Motorsports]

Wiring grommets are not widely available, and if they are, the rubber is often times crap. There is a Z car shop that sells new OEM grommets, and there are plenty of domestic car companies that sell them, like Year One and some aftermarket universal grommets, but they can be very hard to find. Part of the reason for that is the name. Try doing a google search for wiring grommet and you'll see what I mean. One other term I have found that works is "firewall boot". Try searching that term and you'll get some promising results.

[Beowulf]

Thanks I’ll give it a shot

[Figbuck]

I found neoprene grommets galore at Ace Hardware. They have a row of drawers with all kinds of cabinet hardware, springs, clips, corks and automotive doo-hickys. I found a bunch of great fitting pieces. If you go to customer service, they can search the drawers in catalogs. I wanted some Sex-Bolts. Nobody know what the fuck I was talking about, young, old, just never hard of them... looked it up... bingo, a dozen sizes.

 

You got to take the steering control rod off to remove the oil pan.. Back the jam nuts off, then figure out which way the left/right threads turn. Clamp a Vice-Grip where the thread cut stops to spin the rod. It helps to look at which ever side makes you turn... tight right... left loose. Or it will make you crazy.

 

I have a trick for putting new oil pan gaskets on. I got some small metric studs... with thread on both sides... or threaded ones without heads.  The same pitch as the oil pan bolts. Maybe six or eight of them. I took a plastic milk jug and a pair of scissors, to cut pieces about and inch by an inch. Then drill or cut a hole in the middle small enough for the threads to catch up in the hole.

 

Use some gasket goop right where the timing cover and rear seals are.

 

Thread some studs front, back. & middle, fit the gasket up over the studs. Then clip the pieces of milk jug over the threaded studs behind the gasket. They hold the gasket up in place, while you fasten the oil pan with it's hex bolts.  When  then pan is in place, back off the studs, pull the plastic retainers out sideways.  Enjoy your new oil pan.

 

Depending on how hard somebody cranked on the oil pan bolts to stop a leak. I always take a hammer and flatten the surface around the bolt holes, if they have been deformed. Also flatten the L shaped bracket. Small thing but it has bit me and leaked.

 

My best piece of advice, is to take your truck to get the front end aligned. It seems like you could measure and put the control arm back in the same place... but it doesn't work like that. Spend the money to gt it aligned, or waste your front tires really fast. Ask me how I know...

 

 

 

[Stoffregen Motorsports]

Those hardware store grommets don't always look right, nor are they good at keeping water and smells out of the cab.

 

Z car depot has a bunch of the original types, but I notice some of what they sell is aftermarket - https://zcardepot.com/collections/rubber-grommets#