[Supras] 7mGTE oil filter remval trick

[berniek at technicaldevelop.com]

    Hand tightening of the better oil filters with deeper section 
gaskets is more critical than with lower quality filters.  The gasket 
expands significantly and "walks outboard" under high pressure 
conditions and conseqently the filter can be hard to remove.  I'm using 
Purolator Pure1 filters at the moment and ran into this problem.  Steps 
were as follows.


    1.  The only way to get the filter off is with a stamped steel 
"wrench" which fits the flutes at the the bottom of the can.  In my 
(our) situation the filter wrench requies a 3/8 universal joint and a 
long extension.  Yet the wrench began to slip. 


    2.  I used a bottle jack on the floor to upwards load the long 
extension to the swivel in a 1/2" breaker bar adapted to the former 
setup.  At first it felt as if the filter was coming off, but it turned 
out that the washer with a square hole for the drive was inside of the 
sheet metal wrench, and was only spot welded at 4 small places.  The 
spot welds let go.


    3.  I gas welded the washer to the outside of the stamped wrench 
with the oxy torch, went through the same exercise with the bottle jack 
and the filter came off.   But it did take a 1/2 breaker bar (laying 
under the car without much arm leverage) to do it. 


       Hope this is of help to others with similar problems.


       BernieK