Front Case Replacement

[Blaze2gDSM]

Ok guys I am about to change my timing belt and I had a few questions for you all. The belt is being changed as regular maintenence and I know I am leaking oil from somewhere around or above the oil filter housing. I want to pull the front case and replace any seal and or gasket I can, so my questions are as follows. I know I have to lower the engine a little bit by disconnecting the subframe and lowering it down, am I gonnna have a decent amount of drop to work with? Is there anything else I should disconnect other than the engine mount to help the engine drop? Am I going to be able to lower it enough to pull the balance shaft and do the bse mod? My last question kinda involves my timing belt but also the front case. It may sound dumb but my manual says to have the car in neutral to do this procedure, is this so I can rotate the crank? or should I just have the car in park?

A little info that may help to answer these questions. I drive an auto GSX, no engine hoist or lift, I'm trying to accomplish this with jackstands and my floor jack. Basically I'm just trying to do the timing belt and front case seals, if i can do the bse mod then grand, if not I'll just have to buy the belt and tensioner.

Thanks in advance for any help I get from this. This site is probably the most informative dsm site anywhere so I hope you guys/girls can help me out.

 

[bento]

I am not sure with the 2g. But i have done it on a 1g with the engine in the car. It was not easy.....But i'm pretty sure it's possible.

 

[justcompton]

This is a little late but, I replaced the front case in mine while in the car and I did'nt have to lower the motor any, just drop the the t-cace, exhaust, cross member and oil pan. It was rater simple being my first atempt pulling apart a dsm, and yes neutral so if you turn the crank it dont turn the back wheels, that would'nt be good.

 

[TuRBoTaLooN]

Yea looks like I'm a little late as well. You don't need to drop the cross member to remove the front case. All you need to do is unbolt the driver's side motor mount, exhaust (downpipe), and transfer case. Then you need to drop the oil pan. You can remove it with the axle in place, but its much easier to just remove it if you have the proper tools to do so. Then you have to get the t-belt out of the way, remove the front case bolts, remove the crank bolt that keeps the crank and balance shaft sprockets on, remove the sprockets and pry it off. I actually plan on doing a write-up on removing/rebuilding/installing the front case on my 95 since I have to go through the pain of doing it. Hope this went well for you.

 

[Blaze2gDSM]

Did this months ago guys. Everything went pretty smooth except the balance shaft. Had to drop the crossmember and the axle bracket to get it to go low enough. Also built a special tool to give me the clearance to press the bearing back in.

 

[TuRBoTaLooN]

Also built a special tool to give me the clearance to press the bearing back in.

I'd be interested in this tool...details?

 

[Blaze2gDSM]

The tool i made is actually in the tech section of this site, a 12'' extension with a 32mm socket mounted backwards started the bearing in the hole. The only problem I found with this tool was I kept breaking the bearings open because they would ride up the slant to the big end. Basically I went to Home depot and got a 12" piece of bar and threaded the end of it to fit a couple nuts on. I also found a few washers that were the exact same size of the bearing and about 5 that 5 inside the bearing and made my tool. I just threaded one nut onto the rod then the washers that were the bearing size. I put the 5 or so washers that were smaller in front and then another nut. The smaller washer got wrapped with some electrical tape so they would fit inside the balance bearing and hold it a lil. The washers held it and the two in the back pushed the bearing in once i hammered on the rod. With this tool it was first try no more split bearings.

 

[Blaze2gDSM]

The balance shaft reversed would have worked but i could not drop the motor far enough to clear the frame so it wouldn't have hit the bearing straight in. The rod gave me that extra half inch I needed to get a straight shot on the bearing I just tapped the bearing into place and then gave it a few good whacks and it started going in fine.

 

[kenamond]

Yea looks like I'm a little late as well. You don't need to drop the cross member to remove the front case. All you need to do is unbolt the driver's side motor mount, exhaust (downpipe), and transfer case. Then you need to drop the oil pan. You can remove it with the axle in place, but its much easier to just remove it if you have the proper tools to do so. Then you have to get the t-belt out of the way, remove the front case bolts, remove the crank bolt that keeps the crank and balance shaft sprockets on, remove the sprockets and pry it off. I actually plan on doing a write-up on removing/rebuilding/installing the front case on my 95 since I have to go through the pain of doing it. Hope this went well for you.

Tech article would be great! I like illustrated, step by step instructions . I also have an oil leak somewhere under the timing cover and also want to replace the water pump and balancer (93k on both).