2005 Oil Pan Removal, need no hands wrench holder

[65comet]

So, I was doing my cam phasers and dropped a screw down into the oil pan, d'oh! Anyway, I had wanted to drop the oil pan before that had happened to make sure the pickup was clean, just doing it a little sooner. I'm having a hell of a time with the cross member bolts. Maybe my impact is getting old, but it just rattles away and doesn't budge them. I PB blasted them, wire brushed the threads till they looked new and heated up the nuts some. Put a 18" ratchet on the bolt head with the handle against the ground and a 18" breaker bar on the nut with a 2 foot steel pipe on that and the nuts have started moving if I put both arms into it. My problem now is with each small turn, the ratchet falls off the bolt since both hands have to be on the breaker bar and I have no help to hold it for me until Saturday. I tried wrapping a wire around it, but it puts it at an angle and pops off. What have others done to hold a wrench you can't hold with your hand?

 

[stamp11127]

If they are very tight the bolt head shouldn't move. If it does then turn the nut so that ratchet/socket combo on the bolthead is applying pressure to a point that will stop it's movement.
You might consider using 2 breaker bars so that you don't trash the ratchet.

 

[65comet]

The ratchet is lifetime warrantied, so no worry about breaking. The problem is, as soon as I get it the tiniest bit loose, the bolt is then loose and moves causing the socket on that side to fall away. The cross-member must have taken a few hits with the previous owner, so the bolts have a slight curve to them and are going to fight every thread to the last to come off and takes all my strength with both hands on the nut side to get it to move. I need a way for the socket to not fall off with each 1/16 of a turn on the bolt side, some way to hold it on without having another person do it. I want to do it now and not wait till I can get help on Saturday.

 

[ExpeditionAndy]

Get one of these : http://www.harborfreight.com/12-in-composite-xtreme-torque-air-impact-wrench-62891.html



Max Torq: 1000 foot pounds.

 

[ExpeditionAndy]

I give up I can't make that code go way below the url I posted above.

 

[65comet]

Would get a new impact but I won't have the extra funds to get one for a couple of weeks. Just want an idea from what other people have done in the situation of needing a hands free holder for their wrench or ratchet. If I don't have one by morning, I'll just be doing a 1/16 turn, have the socket fall off the bolt, put down the ratchet in my hands to put the other one back in place wedged against the ground as good as I can, then get in another tiny turn before the other one falls off again. I figure at the rate it will be a couple of hours, but you gotta do what ya gotta do.

 

[ExpeditionAndy]

Would get a new impact but I won't have the extra funds to get one for a couple of weeks. Just want an idea from what other people have done in the situation of needing a hands free holder for their wrench or ratchet. If I don't have one by morning, I'll just be doing a 1/16 turn, have the socket fall off the bolt, put down the ratchet in my hands to put the other one back in place wedged against the ground as good as I can, then get in another tiny turn before the other one falls off again. I figure at the rate it will be a couple of hours, but you gotta do what ya gotta do.

I feel your pain. Short of taping or wiring the ratchet to frame and the bolt I really don't have any useful suggestions.

 

[stamp11127]

Walmart shopping bags over the head of the bolt. Tap the socket on with a hammer.

You get yer redneck socket holder fur free...

 

[65comet]

So, here's what I did. I cut up a Pepsi can and made a small rectangle the width of one of the flats on the socket, inserted it in and bent it over the outside. I then tapped the socket onto the bolt and it was then super tight and would not fall off on its own. I then laid a piece of plywood on the ground and screwed pieces of 2x4 to it and around the end of the handle of the breaker bar to keep it in place. After a few minutes of hard cranking had each of the 4 bolts off the cross-member. Pulled the bolt from the right side of the front axle to lower it to have clearance, undid the sway bar brackets and the oil pan had clearance to come out. Got the pan clean, and cleaned the pickup screen which was 80% blocked, and back together. Put in 5w30 oil and took it for a run. With the plugs changed (had 5 snap and had to extract), new VCTs and phasers plus heavier oil it is running like new again.