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o-ring on steel coolant elbow????



yep, grab the elbow kit from oreillys for 4 bucks. Use the upper, take the ring off the lower and put it on your metal lower
 
^^ This right here.

Don't spend half the day trying to find another o-ring that fits it. It's a serious waste of time when your other elbow is sitting in the package.
 
Nowhere. IIRC the alt. bracket on the 97's has the lower elbow molded into it as one piece, hence why it's aluminum. They only have the plastic upper that goes into the LIM. My 95 Bonne is like this as well.

I put some RTV behind the o-ring on mine when I pulled it just to be sure if the aluminum was pitted that it would still seal.
 


Part number is in teh "common part number" thread. :th_king-evil: Add Dorman in front of what Matt said.

All Series 2 motors from 96-99 had a tensioner with a lower elbow case as part of it. W bodies got a different alternator in 99 that took a different tensioner the other body styles swapped over in 2000.

The reasoning behind no longer having the elbow as part of the tensioner is because when pulling on the tensioner to remove it, people were breaking their timing covers.
 
Who the heck pulls on the tensioner that hard to crack the front cover? Jeez, I must have done it wrong. I pulled mine forward and away. Should have just pried it upwards and then sued GM when it cracked. I'm doing it the hard way, lol...
 


Seriously guys.. search for her name. She's broken more stuff than most guys have muscle to break. She's not a crazy amazon woman either.

Blew engine racin
Starter battery cable stud
Misc bolts everywhere
etc etc etc
 
any of you guys have any tips for pulling off the tension on a 97' with the lower aluminum elbow. Mine seems to be really stuff in there, I have about an inch play forward and back but CANNOT for the life of me get the tensioner out and I really don't want to brake it or the timing cover.

Any advice would be great.
 
wiggle as you pull. dont be afraid to pull on it a LITTLE. just dont go the hulk on it. maybe spray some wd around it. dont think it should hurt anything. it will take some time as you wiggle and pull. its not gonna come out in 5 seconds, took me alittle.
 


jp thanks for the timely reply. I've wiggled and pulled for over an hour yesterday with the aid of lots of wd. It moves but i can't get it out. Would applying heat via propane torch to the male fitting which the lower aluminum elbow goes into work? Could this damage anything?
 
heat would only expand the metal and make it harder to get out. and i probably wouldnt to it anyway. is there any restriction in your way or getting it out. take a pic of the workpiece, might give us something.
 
oh sorry I meant to say heat the female fitting on the timing cover, not the actual aluminum elbow sorry. That way the female fitting on the timing cover expands. But yeah I don't think i'm going to torch it anyways.

There is no restriction trying to pull the elbow out from the driver side to the passenger other than the lower elbow hanging up on the inside of the timing cover. And I can only move the tensioner assembly fwd and back approx 1', there is a power steering reservoir behind the tension that it hits when rocked back and some other metal brackets that it hits when rocked fwd.

I think what has happened is that the o-ring has dry rooted and is no longer flexible and is now rigid and hard therefore not compressing when i apply pressure therefor it isn't allowing the aluminium elbow to come free. Is there anything that would i could do that would destroy the o-ring or make it more flexible and compressable.

I will try and take a picture of it tomorrow and post it after work.
 
i will search and try to find an answer. i myself dont know what to do, as i have only done it once. ill search for ya.
 
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