PASSENGER SIDE LIFT BRACKET REMOVAL
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 is what it looks like off the car. Yep, I am one of the proud.
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 lube 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.