Oil Pump Replacement and Prime

[robotzombies]

Hi everyone,

I'm getting a little lifter tick in 1989 Bronco II with 2.9 engine. The truck sits for a while, so I'm assuming that oil is probably gravitating downward during the sitting time, and therefore top end is not being lubricated as it should be.

So I've got the Melling high volume oil pump and tube that I'm going to install, which will hopefully help. I have two questions that I can't find an answer to so far:
1. The Haynes manual has you take off a whole lot of parts like starter, air intake tube, fan shroud, etc, as well as removing the engine mounting bolts/jacking up the engine. Is this necessary? Or can I just drop the oil pan and have relatively decent access to the oil pump?
2. I also can't seem to find a good way to prime the pump. Again, Haynes says to fill the pump with oil and rotate the shaft, but it's not clear if they mean once it's installed or before you bolt it in. This doesn't really seem adequate to me. I don't know if there's a hole on the top of the engine used for this sort of thing to get access to the shaft, but I haven't been able to find anything on this engine that can I could stick a socket or priming tool in. Any idea if there is one, and where it would be?

Any help with these is appreciated. Thanks everyone.

 

[RonD]

Think of the inside of the oil pan
It has the oil pump pick up at the bottom of the low part of the pan, and there in lies the problem for getting the oil pan off all the way

The back of the pan needs to be lowered down and then back, and lowered down enough for the front of the pan to clear the oil pickup
And then back, but it also has to be low enough to clear the flywheel/transmission

You can only raise the engine up, with transmission attached about 2" maybe 3", trans/bell housing hits the firewall/tunnel

You can usually get to all the oil pan bolts, thats the easy part, getting the pan all the way off to change the oil pump is the hard part


Just disable spark and crank the engine over a few times to get oil pump primed(assuming you refilled the pan, lol)
You can put a pan down, leave oil filter off, and crank engine, when oil starts to come out, pump is primed for sure, put filter on and crank it a few more times to fill up the filter and get some fresh oil pumped thru the system

 

[robotzombies]

It can never be easy, can it. Thanks, RonD, for the reply. From what I'm understanding, it's just two things: access to the bolts of the pan, and being able to drop the pan by clearing all the other elements. So while I probably don't have to take off everything the Haynes manual says to, it'll probably make my life easier.

As for the priming, is it just as simple as unplugging the spark plugs? I'd really love to not have to remove the distributor or any fuel delivery components.

 

[RonD]

Yes, just that simple to prime a new oil pump
New pump should already have a light coating of assembly lube and should come in a sealed plastic bag from the maker
Leave it in the bag, sealed, until its time to install

 

[Josh B]

I've read the 4.0 is just a bored out 2.9?
Does the pump and the oil priming all work the same way in it?

 

[RonD]

Yes, works the same in most V6 or V8 engines