The outer cover of the oil pump on my Duster is leaking. Can I just take the cover off and replace the gasket or will parts fall out everywhere?

Is this gasket available individually? Part #'s ?

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82 D150-225/727
02 Dakota-3.9/5 speed
87 GMC C7000-8.2 Detroit Diesel/5+2

I just replaced the gasket and o'ring on my 69 Valiant /225 last weekend. I do say it would have been a lot easier to have done it when I had the engine out. I had to loosen and jack up the engine to get the shaft all the way out. If all you want is to replace the O'ring behind the outer cover, that shouldn't be that bad. Unscrew the bolts, i think there are four or five, then just take the cover off. You may have to muscle it, but it'll come. Before you do this, make sure to drain your oil. The only thing behind that cover to worry about is the oil pump drive ring?, not sure of the proper name, and that o ring. Clean it up, put in a new o ring and you should be good. The only other thing is that the o ring must sit in a groove on the oil pump side, not the outer cover. Maybe take some grease and put a little on the o ring to hold it in the groove. Just be careful it lines up. You shouldn't have any problem getting that o ring and or the oil pump cover gasket itself at whatever parts store. I got mine at Discount. Hope that helps. Good luck!! Jim

That's actually a fairly important thing to get fixed; if that seal leaks, you draw air into the oil system both causing froth and reducing oil pressure.

The only thing in danger of falling out when you remove the cover is the pump ring. If you take out all but one bolt, you can just pivot the cover sideways and then hold on to the ring while you take the last bolt out. After you have it all apart, give the ring a generous coating of vaseline. This will not only serve to prime the pump, but also to hold the ring in while you put the cover back on. Judging by the gaskets that came in my rebuild kit, there seemed to be several different styles of O-ring through the years, so make sure yours matches up. Give the o-ring a generous coating of vaseline as well, and it will stay in the pump groove no problem as you align and tighten the front cover. Just make sure you do this on a cold engine. If it's warm at all, it will melt the vaseline, causing it to be a royal PITA to get the o-ring in without pinching it. (Can you guess how I know?)