Hopefully the First of Many Helpful Posts
This might be a lame way to start off the first post but it was what I did this morning and it has to do with my ole’ J20 the theme of my online existence!
Yesterday I was just finishing up the oil change in the ole’ truck when I pulled the dipstick to check the oil. The only problem was that the tube came with it. Yeah, not a good sign. After staring at it for a moment like “this did not just happen” I did the only thing any reasonable person would do. I put all the tools away and decided to sleep on it. The problem (if this unfortunate thing ever happens to you) is a good part of the tube is still pressed into the block with the tail end of it in the pan. Unless I wanted to dump all the new oil out and remove the oil pan, I had to figure out how to get the rest of that broken tube out from the outside………
I woke up with a plan! I was so sure it would work I went ahead and ordered a new dip tube. About $25 off an e-bay seller. I also got a tube support that uses a valve cover bolt to hang on and keep the new tube from breaking. I had three plans of attack. The first two failed…. What ended up working was a high grade lag bolt that was just the right width to thread into the tube without expanding it. I thread it in a good inch and put a pry bar on the head of the bolt so I could hammer on the pry bar and hammer the whole thing out. It was a sigh of relief when it popped out!
And to think, All I wanted to do was do a quick oil change. Now I just have wait for the new tube to come in.