Need help: K member won't lower!
 

I'm doing my head swap and am changing my oil pan. The heads and intake are off, the motor is jacked up as far as it will go and I have loosened the 6 k member bolts.
The k member won't drop though. It seems like there is something else keeping it from lowering. After about 1 revolution of the k member bolts they are loose. What gives?

Try loosening the 4 strut bolts. You'll have to undo the mastercylinder 2 nuts and pull it off to get to the one bolt below it. Those should give you enough play to drop it some.

Hope this Helps.

Hopefully you've removed more than just those 6 bolts! The four strut tower bolts on each side also need to come out, along with the transmission cross-member.

http://www.michiganspeed.com/enginepull/index.html

if you have the heads and the intake off. the motor will lift high enough to drop the pan. i pulled just my intake and could drop the pan after pulling off the oil psi sender. if not. pop the strut bolts off. and the sway bar.

unless you left the motor mounted to the k-member you wont need to drop the tranny cross memeber. i personally would leave it. its something else helping you hold up the driveline.

Yeah did all that and it hasn't budged, not even an inch. :confused:

If that were true the pan would be off already. It is still an inch and a half (approximate) from clearing.

Ok, took a break and tried it again. I managed to get the motor and trans up a little bit higher and it cleared.

I think I broke the sensor that was in the side of the pan though.

thats not a big problem i think its just the low oil pressure sensor

thats why i threw in there to pull the oil psi sensor off so you didnt have that problem. but im wondering why if you have the intake off it didnt lift high enough... hrm mine did and i didnt touch the kmember but thats good to hear

NOPE. Whats in the side of the oil pan is the oil level sensor. The oil pressure sensor is up behind the intake manifold.

GM part number 12603782

http://shbox.com/1/low_oil_sensor.jpg

brake lines...sway bar...struts...battery cables...all sorts of stuff that connects to the k member...ps lines...abs sensors...

Oh really..? I thought it was just the lca's. :jest:

my oil pan gasket was changed 2 summers ago in jpacks garage and only the valve covers and intake manifold were off (because those gaskets were being changed too)

Yeah that actually worked for me too. After working at it for a little bit longer I was able to get it out w/out needing the k member lowered.

good to hear you got her out. and even better you didnt have to lower the kmember. just had to fight with mine a little bit to get her out to clear aroudn the crank and all.

Cool nice to hear you got it done

man, after reading this thread, i should have taken photos and documented my oil pan swap. did it with motor in the car, everything on the top of the engine still fully assembled. headers still in place, did NOT loosen any bolts in the Kmember. pulled only 1 motor mount bolt out and loosened the other. HOW you ask? was actully really easy. did the full swap in roughly 3-4 hours. pulled the T56 (which i have done 900 times now so its really easy), pulled the bellhousing, clutch, flywheel, and starter. i then used 3 exhaust stands. put one under each header collector and raised them to the floor pans. loosened my motor mount bolts and removed the one that was easiest to get to. then put one more exhaust stand up under the balancer and slowly raised it up until the front of the pan cleared the K member and front Main caps enough to be pulled out toward the rear of the car. oh, also had to slowly rotate the crank so that it was in such a position that the front weights and rod journals were up inside the block to give me maximum clearance. did that before raising the front up. and the low oil level sensors i believe can be replaced at oreilly's for under 20 dollars. good luck with everything.