# How do I safely jack up the car for clutch change



## nssntra85 (Nov 7, 2006)

Hi,
I am a newbie and I have been reading the B11 forum lately before I start to work on my clutch replacement project. It all started with the release bearing chattering for some time. And then it had a hard time picking up speed and i did tighten up my clutch cable and it did work for some time and now there is only about 3/4" left on the clutch cable. My clutch is slipping pretty bad and I don't hear the release bearing chatter anymore. Time to change the clutch. This is my first clutch project and I am trying to do my best to get it done. Thank you in advance for your patience and time. I have couple of questions that I need some help. I have a manual 1985 nissan sentra with a B11 chassis and E16S engine. I have the Haynes manual(both 72050 and 982) and chilton manual(part number 7197) with me and I have bought the Factory Service Manual and the FSM is on the way in the mail. 

Firstly, I have read the Haynes and Chiltons manual and it did not give me any clue where I should jack up the car if I want to work on my clutches. Haynes manual did point out the jack points on the car. As I recall, there are 4 of them on the side bar, one in the front and one at the back. And I have to remove the front driver's side wheel and the wheel hub, remove both the inner and outer half driveshafts, don't have to remove the passenger side driveshaft, remove the transmission and then work on the clutch components. I have pair of 31/2 ton jack stand, a pair of 6 ton jack stand and 12 ton hydrolic jack with me. I don't have a engine hoist. Here is what the Haynes manual said in the manual as I quote them from the Transmission- removal and refitting section "Support the engine and the transmission on jacks with blocks of wood as insulators". I will jack up the car behind the front wheel side member and that will jack it up in the front slanting backward. My assumption is that I have to remove the left hand side engine mount (which bolts to transmission)and the front engine mount to get to the clutch components. I can see that I have to remove the drivers/left side engine mount point to get to the transmission. Do I need to support the engine when I begin to remove the driver's side side engine mount? How do I support the car on right hand side to begin the process? Will the car hold it position in the air when I loosen up the three nut on the balljoints and unscrew the the top nuts at the suspension strut top mounting and live the middle big nut on untouch on the strut? But do I have to remove the front engine mount as well to work on the clutch? The front engine mount has a small shield metal with a split in the middle (like U shape) sort of protection shield on the front engine mount and the exhaust manifold pipe connection. Can I use this U shape metal as a jack point when I loosen the front engine mount but it is not flat but inclined downward and might crunch the exhaust manifold pipe connection. I have a old fashion metal ramp that I can use as a support at this metal sheet. Only thing is its very close to the exhaust pipe connection joint. I did read in the manuals that mention that I can support the engine with a block of wood on my engine oil sum pan but in my car I have a exhaust pipe that runs in the middle under the engine oil sum pan that runs right to the catalytic converter. I was thinking of cutting 2 one inch thick pine wood blocks in the dimension of 2 13/16'' by 4" inch and using them as insulators for my engine oil sum pan support on both side of the exhaust pipe and jack them up from there. The reason for the dimension (2 13/16 by 4) is it fit the jack saddle exactly and there is not much room on the oil sum pan to begin with Moreover the shape of the engine oil sum pan is very curvy and it can slip and trip easily. If I go this route, Is the engine oil sum pan strong and stable enough to hold the engine weight when I remove the front and the driver side engine support mount when I am working my way to the clutch? And how high from the ground should I jack it up from the ground to give safe and stable/good working space. Moreover, I think there is a chance for the wood support to slip when the car is jacked up from the front and its on a angle leaning to the back. And it makes the case worst when there are 2 small jack point in a small sum pan area. When I went to get the wood in the local hardware store , I explained to store guy to get a second opinion. He thinks that its not a good idea to use wood as an insulator in the place of the jack saddle because it increases the chance of slippage when the car is jacked up on its side member in a sliding angle to the back. Does adding the piece of wood as insulation on a jack saddle increase the chances of slippage when the car is jacked in an angle? If it was him, he says that its better to go with the bare metal which has a lesser chance of slippage than wood insulator. Can anybody share their thought on this? I have heard guys in this forum talk about trying to find hockey pucks/ wood support to jack up cars at jack points. But in my case the jack point is on the engine oil sum pan which is hollow/curvy in nature and not much of space to move around. If I jack up the engine oil sum pan with the bare metal jack saddle it will puncture my sum pan. Do I have to remove the exhaust manifold pipe out of the way to support the engine on my sum pan? Even If I remove the exhaust manifold pipe and go with supporting the engine on my engine oil sum pan with one longer wood block, will it be strong enough to hold the weight of the engine and will not trip or crunch the sum pan ? Its not flat at the bottom of the oil pan and it have grooves at the bottom. From my understanding,the engine oil sum pan is a hollow container to contain the engine oil. Is there any other way to jack up the car in a safe and stable way while I am working toward the clutch component? Or am I wrong making the assumption that I have to remove the front engine mount point to begin with? But I can see that I have to remove the side engine mount to remove the transmission. Another reason for me to be concern about the engine oil sum pan being used as a engine support is that , I am planning to change my rear main seal and I read that it is bolted to the engine oil sum pan. Is it possible for me to remove the rear main seal retainer and change the seal without damaging the engine oil sum pan gasket? The diagram in the auto part stores shows the gasket set for engine oil pan is 4 piece set. And how do I seal it back properly when i replace it? What kind of sealant should I use on putting back seal retainer? 

Here is another area of the transmission removal and refitting question That I have. In the Haynes manual, it states that "Once the driveshafts have been disconnected, insert a short bar into each of the side gears as it is possible for the side gears to rotate and fall into the differential case. Alternatively, a U-shaped piece of wire may be used." There is a diagram in the manual with a statement saying "Fitting temporary bar into side gear". How many side gear holes are there and how thick and long of the bar will do the trick? Will 1/2" diameter PVC pipe tube from our friendly hardware store with a length of 8 inch will do the trick? Or can I use a screw driver. And do I have to have it in before I pull out the driveshaft out?And what gear should the manual transmission be while I am tring to remove it? It says in the manual vehicle that the car should be in 1st or reverse gear while its jacked up and worked on. What gear should it be to avoid the possiblity of side gear to rotate and fall into differential case. I don't want that to happen. That will be a major screw up. Since I am going to be working on removing the transmission , I don't want to break the transmission while removing it while the transmission is locked on certain gear internally. When putting it back together, what kind of RTV sealant should I use to replace/reattach the old tranmission gasket? Is there any tricks that I can use to remove the gasket in one piece without screwing it up. Should I use Ultra Black or ultra grey permatex? 

Thanks again for you time and patience. And I am pretty sure I will have more questions as i progress in the project.


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## nssntra85 (Nov 7, 2006)

come on now, guys. help me out here. give me some suggestions. I am pretty sure some of you have come across the situation that I have described above. thanks again.


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## OchnofConcrete (Jan 7, 2008)

and that's why i love rearwheel drive.

sorry man, i could tell ya if i was there, but without seeing it, i'm not gonna be responsible for crushing your head under your engine.


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## nssntra85 (Nov 7, 2006)

thank you ochnofConcrete. you say that you can give me a better suggestion if you can have a look at it. that can be arranged. pm me. I was thinking of supporting the engine by the engine front mounting plate with couple of wood blocks on a metal ramp. But I got the exhaust front pipe running under the oil pan and it is very close to the oil pan. The ramp with wood might crunch the pipe if I support the engine at engine front mounting plate. I may have to remove the exhaust front pipe out of the way. And then support the engine on the engine front mounting plate. Anybody have try supporting the engine on engine front mounting plate? 

Anyways, The book says that I have to remove the front and right side engine mount. Another thing that concerns me about supporting the engine by the engine oil pan is I am planning to change my main rear oil seal. I may have to but I am not sure, I may have to loosen up the oil pan to get to the retainer. If I support it this way, will I have problem taking out the seal retainer and changing the seal? Because I have to use liquid gasket/sealant to put the retainer back behind the flywheel and the retainer mates with the engine oil pan. Do I have to loosen/pry on the oil pan to get to the oil seal retainer to change the seal? Can anybody chime in on this issue please? How about project on changing the rear main seal on b11/E16s nissan? thank you again.


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## greenbean699 (Jan 18, 2004)

best way to support the engine is to get some wooden blocks and put under the oil pan. it wont hurt anything. as for the rear seal goes, you can take the seal out and put a new one back in without taking the retainer off. but if the gasket is leaking on the retainer, then you will have to take the 2 nuts out of the oil pan and the rest of the bolts holding it in. if your careful you can pry it up and away to get it off. 

you may have to take the seal out first to have enough clearance to pry the retainer off.
cuz the crank will be in the way. if the rear seal is leaking, i would re-seal the oil pan anyway. its not long and it will be leaking.


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## nssntra85 (Nov 7, 2006)

greenbean699 said:


> best way to support the engine is to get some wooden blocks and put under the oil pan. it wont hurt anything. as for the rear seal goes, you can take the seal out and put a new one back in without taking the retainer off. but if the gasket is leaking on the retainer, then you will have to take the 2 nuts out of the oil pan and the rest of the bolts holding it in. if your careful you can pry it up and away to get it off.
> 
> you may have to take the seal out first to have enough clearance to pry the retainer off.
> cuz the crank will be in the way. if the rear seal is leaking, i would re-seal the oil pan anyway. its not long and it will be leaking.


thanks greenbean699. The project I started was to replace the worn out clutch. The main real seal kit that i bought have 3 gasket and 1 orange colored rubber seal. So you are saying that I don't have to lower the oil seal retainer from the oil pan flange. right? because I do not want to shake or move the oil pan while it is being supported on wood block I was afraid that the retainer might be clamped in between the oil pan and the engine body. Does taking out the 2 nuts out of oil pan might cause any movement on the oil pan while its being supported on the oil pan by wood?

And you say you would re-seal the oil pan anyways meaning that you would go ahead and and take out the seal retainer and use the 3 gaskets and change it since you come this far on top of changing the rear main seal. right? And then if it is not the rear main seal or the 3 gasket of rear main seal thats leaking then thats a different oil pan gasket changing project altogether, I guess. lol. 

I will be jacking up the car with jack stands behind the front wheel of the car on the side member. So it will be slanted in an angle to the rear. You mean to tell me to stack wood from ground up or place wood on a ramp or a jack stand so it can support the oil pan. I was told to have a wider block of wood at the the base of the oil pan to spread the weight and avoid or keep away from the the drain plug. Is this right? But I don't have enough leverage/space to support the whole oil pan but 3/4 of oil pan because there is a front exhaust pipe that runs under the oil pan which covers about 1/4 of the oil pan. How about the idea of supporting the engine on the front engine mount plate? The plate beneath the front exhaust pipe joint? Is this strong enought to support the weight? Will this interfere with my clutch changing the rear main seal project? Any ideas on these? Thanks again.


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## OchnofConcrete (Jan 7, 2008)

stick to the frontwheel drive guys..

what i mean by looking at it, is i'd have to be there. if i'm there i can help, i can figure things out. but from the one time i was going to replace a clutch on an Integra... (and my b!tch ex wrecked it first) ...i never got to it. i'm a rearwheel drive guy.

but he's totally right about jacking up the oil pan with a 2 x 4. it won't hurt nothing as long as the wood goes to either side of the oil pan... put a small little block under it and you might as well just put the jack under the oil pan.


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## nssntra85 (Nov 7, 2006)

greenbean699 said:


> best way to support the engine is to get some wooden blocks and put under the oil pan. it wont hurt anything. as for the rear seal goes, you can take the seal out and put a new one back in without taking the retainer off. but if the gasket is leaking on the retainer, then you will have to take the 2 nuts out of the oil pan and the rest of the bolts holding it in. if your careful you can pry it up and away to get it off.
> 
> you may have to take the seal out first to have enough clearance to pry the retainer off.
> cuz the crank will be in the way. if the rear seal is leaking, i would re-seal the oil pan anyway. its not long and it will be leaking.



I have a nissan sentra 1984 B11 and E16s. I posted this message in a new thread. I am in the process of changing the clutch and rear main seal. I have removed the flywheel and I am trying to change the rear main seal. I have removed the old rear main seal since it was leaking and in the process broke the oil seal retainer circular backing( the circular coppery backing) and the oil seal that fits the oil pan where the retainer sits. Is this circular rear main seal backing replaceable? How do I take the oil seal retainer out without dropping the oil pan? Or is there any way I can change the broken part of the retainer. The car is being supported on oil pan with a block of wood. Is there any way I can pry out the two bolt that goes into the oil pan. A quarter of a inch might get that bolts out. 

I try prying them out but no luck and crankshaft is still on the way when i try to take it out. I took out the 3 philip head screws but got stuck with the 2 bolts that attaches to the oil pan. I bought a fel-pro rear bearing main set which comes with 3 gaskets (one triangular shape and two dome shaped) and a orange colored rear main seal. I was hoping that I might replace these gaskets. Really appreciate if someone can help me out. Thanks in advance.


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