3100 power steering reservoir

[garylau]

Does anyone know how to remove this? The manual I have doesn't say, and I know they can come off without pulling the whole pump (I don't want to remove the motor mount, and need to get at the LIM bolts under it). Oh, yeah, it's a '96 Beretta, the same one I asked about a month ago, but it got put on hold waiting for him to get parts.

[tractorman]

You can't remove the reservior with the p/s pump in place... not without breaking it anyway.

I'm no happier about it than you are, but if you're doing a LIM job on a beretta, you've got to set the oil pan gently on WOOD blocks and remove that upper motor mount, along with the p/s pump and alternator. Might as well remove the right front wheel and splash cover while you're at it.

[bszopi]

Now, its been awhile since I did a LIM gasket change, but why would you need to remove the wheel and splash gaurd? That makes no sense at all to me.

[tractorman]

It isn't strictly neccesary. But removing the wheel makes it a hell of a lot easier to get to the motor mount bolts. And removing the splash guard makes it much easier to access the crank pulley so that he can turn the engine over gently by hand to verify that no pushrods have been swapped.

But those are personal preferences... not necessities.

[bszopi]

Whenever I did it, I just removed the aluminum piece from the engine and then from the mount, and left the mount bolted to the car. No real reason to remove it.

[garylau]

Hmmm... the one on my Lumina came off, something must have been broken, I guess.

[tractorman]

garylau- there are two sliding clips that hold the reservior to the p/s pump... and I don't believe you can slide them out of place while the p/s pump is bolted on. Unless, of course, you break something. I could be wrong... wouldn't be the first time... but have a look at those clips. I don't think you can get them off with the pump in place.

Speaking of me being wrong- you have a point, bszopi. About removing the wheel and right side motor mount- I'm thinking of the last LIM job I did on my old Corsica. And now that I think about it, I probably pulled all that off for more access to the left side of the engine so that I could replace the front cover gasket at the same time. Totally unrelated and not neccesary for the LIM job. My bad.

[garylau]

Well, I guess the motor mount is coming off. I didn't want to do it, because I started taking it off previously and even though I had the motor blocked up, it started shifting for some reason and I wasn't sure I'd be able to get it back into place. I don't have a hoist or anything to assist me with that.

[tractorman]

Here's how I do it- your mileage may vary:

1. Remove the two bolts that attach the aluminum bracket to the engine mount- this way the weight of the engine is still on the mount.

2. Jack up the car a few inches, and put a wood block(s) under the oil pan.

3. Let the car down so that the oil pan rests on the block- this will require a bit of trial and error to get the height correct, but what you want is for the aluminum bracket to be lifted just a bit off the motor mount when you let the jack down. So now there should be no weight on that aluminum bracket.

4. Remove the aluminum bracket. The motor may roll a little to the rear, but can be pulled back into position easily enough when you reinstall the aluminum bracket. Worst-case scenario, you may need a ratchet strap or a buddy to hold the engine while you install the bracket.