how to change the oil in a hydrive car?

[Hydrive53]

I just re-did my front end on my 1953 and had no problems in doing it. Took everything off, sandblasted, re-painted every thing in the front area. Reasembly went well and did one side in about 1hr, everything on one side brakes included. I love my Plymouth and will continue to do my own work. I know more about this thing than any shop would. I prefer to work on this Plymouth over my 1992 Dogde 2500 turbo truck any day. I rebuilt the front end in the truck not to long ago, and you want to talk about being in the difficult area!! Man I had a 10 foot bar on the braker bar to take out and install the ball joints (up&down) on the truck,? Two days to do that one.The truck shop time is at $100 a hr now. So I do what I can on my own at that price. So anything that comes up with the Plymouth is ok with me. Also try to change the struts in that fwd car that you have. I Tell you that the Plymouth is simple to work on. I looked at my manual, and it did have that you need to put a jack on the frame and one under the spring. There is no photo with it, but it is in the book, You my have just missed it in there.

[Cliff54]

Man Im glad that I don't have a HYDRIVE...  :-\

I just have a Plymouth with HY-STYLE...  ::)


Cliff59

[squirrel]

you're my hero, man!  i never would have thought of turning the fan blades.  awesome.  thank you!

as for the springs, thanks.  i'll try again tomorrow; i was close to doing what you said- i also had removed the shocks- but it began raining and i was pretty frustrated already.  it's a little reassuring to know i was close- but i made a huge mistake in removing the massive bolt that connects the upper control arm to the vertical support.  holy cow, what a big mistake.  who engineered that?  threading on opposite sides of the arm AND through the support?  not to mention the nearly impossible to install grease seals.  wow.  i'll never touch those things again.  now i understand why the grease in those were so gross- no one wants to go near them.

[David Pollock]

By now you have learned that nothing that is obvious is easy.  You will need a helper to rotate the engine and it is usually possible to do it with the fan blades if the belt is tight.  If your engine has really good compression, it may be necessary to remove all six spark plugs. If you really don't have the heart to do it, just change the oil in the engine several times over a few thousand miles until it runs clean.  No great harm will be done unless the engine is really dirty inside.

As for the front springs ( you really like tough problems, don't you? ) With your medical insurance premiums paid up and the car firmly blocked and supported under the frame in the area below the firewall :  1. undo the sway bar from the frame (2 bolts on each side) 2. undo the sway bar from the lower control arms (one bolt each side) remove sway bar ( it is not under much tension but be careful)  3. support the lower control arm with a jack and remove remove the pivot pin from the bottom of the steering knuckle , lower the jack and it should allow the coil spring to fall out. At worst, you might have to remove the inner pivots by undoing the four bolts on each pivot.  It is not a fun job but requires no special tools other than a good floor jack. 

[squirrel]

well, i know this shouldnt be so difficult, but i spent all day trying to access the drain bolt on the torque converter.  and failed.  the service manual says 'rotate the torque converter'.  the only way i can see to do that would be to get to the crank bolt and start turning, but that seems impossible to get to.  i'm used to FWD vehicles, where you can get the crank bolt just by removing the front wheel.  seriously, am i retarded? i even tried turning the key a little to just rotate it using the starter, but that's too strong- it's like playing an impossible game of roulette.

also, how do you remove the front springs?  the manual doesnt tell you that either; maybe it's just something thats supposed to be obvious.  but the spring seat and the springs themselves are fairly rusted out and might need replacing.