Sil40_Mayhem

recently, my 240 has been ticking like it was low on oil (sounding like a damn diesel). this was odd, since i had just changed the oil the previous weekend. immediately, i starting thinking about the timing chaing, guides, tensioners, and all that good stuff. well, after listening to the motor, the sound wasn't coming from anywhere near the front of the motor. next, i checked the oil (which was full). after inspecting the bottom of the car, i noticed the oil pan was dented slightly. "i'll just drop it and pound it out", i thought...

anyway, i did some research and found that it was a bit more involved that just unbolting the oil pan and prying it off (silly me). here were the options i was left with:
[list=1][*]disassemble the front crossmember[*]unbolt the motor, lift it, and drop the sway bar a little[/list=1]

i went w/number 2. anyway, i had to drop the oil pickup to get the pan off of there. the problem i'm having is getting the pan back on and replacing the oil pickup. if i bolt up the pickup first, it prevents the pan from sliding into place. if i get the pan into place (with the pickup inside of it), then i can't bolt up the pickup. does anybody know a good way to get this done? i've looked all over the place, and i found the info to remove it, but the info to get past this tricky part is lacking.

dkdeleon

the way i did it was to put the oil picup in the pan put the pan in place then ( this is the tricky part) alighn the picup unit start it with one bolt tighten it half way then start on the second bolt, (the best way i fond out was to use gear renches it makes it easyer), then start bolting the pan. did you check your rod bearings for for clearance? I had this same problem and it was my bearings???

Sil40_Mayhem

thanks for the input. i'll give that a try. one other thing, if i am having a problem clearing the rod bearings, how would i go about fixing that?