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Welcome to H—L. If you are here then you probably want to remove the passenger side valve cover, which means you need to remove the passenger side lift bracket. I cannot begin to tell you how fun this can be.
This sucker is held on by 13 mm bolts. They are very tight from the factory and it is a PITA to get leverage on them. For the outside bolt you can try to get back there from under the hood. If that does not work…. I put the car up on jack stand on passenger side. I went to the auto store and got the longest 13mm box wrench I could find. I then put two pairs of gloves on for padding. From under car you can push up with much more leverage than from crawling under the hood with left hand. BE CAREFUL! There is some very sharp exposed sheet metal and other sharp metal under the car in the engine area. Squirting some break free on the bolts wouldn’t hurt. BAM! Now that the outside bolt is off it is time for the inside bolt…. well…. there is another alternative…
That lift bracket is pretty soft metal. You can bend it back and out of the way. I used a hammer and a 3-foot section of 2x2 to pound it back. After you break it free with a couple slams from the hammer you can bend it by hand. BE CAREFUL! There are heater hoses back there for the heater core. Don’t bust those. With the bracket bent you can now get to the corner valve cover bolt.
My car is an automatic so there is a tranny dipstick tube that secures to the inner bolt on the bracket. It is a two part bolt…. threads to block…. forged 13mm nut then more threads…this is what the tranny dipstick tube bolts to. Save that special nut/stud for the tranny tube if you remove the lift bracket entirely.
So, to get the inside bolt off I used that same long 13mm box wrench and straddled the engine with my right hand/arm on the wrench from the drivers side… between the rear manifold and the firewall. My left arm/hand attacked the wrench from the passenger side. That freaking bolt finally budged. From there on out I used a sling wrench. Somes people calls it a gear wrench. I calls it a sling wrench. It looks sorta like a box wrench, but it makes a darn strange clicking noise whens you turns it. I thinks that be da ratcheting thingbymabob inherent to it beein a new fangled apartatus. I just calls it a sling wrench. It works and stuff.
:banana:
This sucker is held on by 13 mm bolts. They are very tight from the factory and it is a PITA to get leverage on them. For the outside bolt you can try to get back there from under the hood. If that does not work…. I put the car up on jack stand on passenger side. I went to the auto store and got the longest 13mm box wrench I could find. I then put two pairs of gloves on for padding. From under car you can push up with much more leverage than from crawling under the hood with left hand. BE CAREFUL! There is some very sharp exposed sheet metal and other sharp metal under the car in the engine area. Squirting some break free on the bolts wouldn’t hurt. BAM! Now that the outside bolt is off it is time for the inside bolt…. well…. there is another alternative…
That lift bracket is pretty soft metal. You can bend it back and out of the way. I used a hammer and a 3-foot section of 2x2 to pound it back. After you break it free with a couple slams from the hammer you can bend it by hand. BE CAREFUL! There are heater hoses back there for the heater core. Don’t bust those. With the bracket bent you can now get to the corner valve cover bolt.
My car is an automatic so there is a tranny dipstick tube that secures to the inner bolt on the bracket. It is a two part bolt…. threads to block…. forged 13mm nut then more threads…this is what the tranny dipstick tube bolts to. Save that special nut/stud for the tranny tube if you remove the lift bracket entirely.
So, to get the inside bolt off I used that same long 13mm box wrench and straddled the engine with my right hand/arm on the wrench from the drivers side… between the rear manifold and the firewall. My left arm/hand attacked the wrench from the passenger side. That freaking bolt finally budged. From there on out I used a sling wrench. Somes people calls it a gear wrench. I calls it a sling wrench. It looks sorta like a box wrench, but it makes a darn strange clicking noise whens you turns it. I thinks that be da ratcheting thingbymabob inherent to it beein a new fangled apartatus. I just calls it a sling wrench. It works and stuff.
:banana:
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