Oil pan removal

[k hutchins]

Hey everyone

Sorry to start a new topic, but when l tried to search this topic, it said "oil pan" ignored.

I have an oil leak that l've traced to a bad oil pan gasket, or a warped oil pan rim, or both. So l decided it was time before mowing season to get this fixed. However l can't get at the three bolts at the back end inside the bell housing. I've tried a few different combinations of sockets and U joint drives. I got one out, but can't get a good enough bite on the other two without stripping the head.
I'm hoping someone can offer a suggestion or techinique that works without splitting the tractor. Most of us know what a pain that is. Any and all suggestions would be appreciated.

TIA
Hutch

[Dale Finch]

I use a 1/4" ratchet, with a 6" extension, plus a special LOW PROFILE 1/2" universal socket, similar to this:

https://www.amazon.com/TEKTON-Drive-Universal-Socket-SHD08013/dp/B07R88X3TT

Before I got that socket, I used a 1/4" universal with a 1/2" socket that I ground down for a shorter height. Worked fairly well, also.

Plus LOTS of patience. Just remember, those three screws are going into softer metal than the engine block (the bottom of the rear seal retainer) so don't use a gorilla fist on them... tight, but not tight enough to strip the holes!

[tnestell]

I think that I would try a wobble extension.

https://www.harborfreight.com/wobble-so ... nyEALw_wcB

[Bob McCarty]

On some of mine, I've cut a slot for an offset screwdriver. Dale's method works well.

[Jim Becker]

Sorry to start a new topic, but when l tried to search this topic, it said "oil pan" ignored.

Effective searching is a skill that requires practice, mainly in selecting good search terms. This site does not allow use of 3 letter words as they tend to be very common and would find too many irrelevant hits. The challenge is to think of some less common words that are likely to appear in a relevant discussion. In this case, the question comes down to thinking of words that might show up in comments about reaching those three bolts.

I decided to take a stab at it. Since you are dealing with bolts blocked by the flywheel, I tried a search for "flywheel" and "bolts". Not surprisingly, it got a lot of hits, mostly talking about bolts that hold the flywheel. It turns out that "bolts" is about as bad as "oil" for useless hits. So what word could be added to the search? The bolts go through the flange of the pan. So I tried a search for "flywheel", "bolts", and "flange". It only returned five hits. Here is the first one:
https://www.farmallcub.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=105076
It is titled "oil leaking/smoking" and does address this question. Not surprisingly, some of the other four hits were about starters.

By the way, "oil pan" is often written "oilpan" so that might have been a good search term. I tried "flywheel", "bolts", and "oilpan" but it didn't work out. It only returned one hit and it wasn't useful for this question.

[dgrapes59]

Another helpful hint, after you post, scroll down to "Similar Topics". Often times helpful posts can be found there. In this case, the first one I see is "oil pan removal", which contains a reply from Dale, with similar information as she gave in this post.

Those bolts can be fun to remove, good luck!

Oh, when reinstalling, be sure they go in straight and don't over tighten, they go into the softer material retainer.

[k hutchins]

Thanks everyone. I bought a shallow socket set and a 1/4" drive universal. Together that worked. Not as fancy as Dale's suggestion, but it worked.
See my update on my High oil pressure thread for a complete update.

Thanks again everyone.