Driving with disconnected oxygen sensor

[rashenup]

I'm in the middle of replacing the oxygen sensors on my 95 discovery... and the truck is being very difficult. Everything is so rusted together and there is so little room I haven't been able to get the old o2 sensors to budge at all, even with generous doses of PB Blaster the night before

Anyways in my attempts I cut the wires on the passenger side sensor so that I would be able to slide the box end of the wrench over it to get a better grip on the sensor. So now I have one sensor connected, and one disconnected. (I've tried reconnecting the wires, but with the limited room availble I wasn't able to My question is is it possible to drive the truck temporarily with only one of the sensors connected?

(and of course it there's any wisdom/tips to getting those dang things off I'd appreciate it. I'm going to run out and see if I can find a deep offset wrench to see if that will help prevent the wrench from slipping off the sensor)

 

[garrett]

I'm in the middle of replacing the oxygen sensors on my 95 discovery... and the truck is being very difficult. Everything is so rusted together and there is so little room I haven't been able to get the old o2 sensors to budge at all, even with generous doses of PB Blaster the night before

Anyways in my attempts I cut the wires on the passenger side sensor so that I would be able to slide the box end of the wrench over it to get a better grip on the sensor. So now I have one sensor connected, and one disconnected. (I've tried reconnecting the wires, but with the limited room availble I wasn't able to My question is is it possible to drive the truck temporarily with only one of the sensors connected?

(and of course it there's any wisdom/tips to getting those dang things off I'd appreciate it. I'm going to run out and see if I can find a deep offset wrench to see if that will help prevent the wrench from slipping off the sensor)

a little bit of heat from a butane torch (after the truck has cooled of course) can help the the stubborn things. and more PB always helps.
you want to avoid busting the top of the O2 off though. you don't wanna go there.

 

[alia176]

See if you can find a O2 sensor socket to remove the O2 sensor. If not, try using a Flare wrench. When using a 13pt box end wrench, they can damage the corners and you end up having a rounded O2 sensor nut

The other option is to get a vice grip and get mid evil with it, provided you have the room for swinging.

the last option is drop the Y pipe then get mid evil with it on the floor If you're dropping the Y pipe, you may be opening up another can of worm with frozen exhaust manifold studs and such.

Or if you're fed up with this crap, take it to Meineke and pay them the hour shop charge to do it for you while you sip a latte in the lobby!

No matter what you do, be sure to apply some anti seize compound/goo to the THREADS ONLY (not to the actual element at the tip of the sensor). This will make the next session go much easier!

Good luck,

Ali

 

[rashenup]

Thanks for the tips!
I swung by Sears today to check out some tools, but I'm not sure if anything there will work or not given the limited room to work under there.

I had thought about dropping the y-pipe, but like you said I'm afraid that those bolts aren't going to be any easier to work on...

I have to crawl under the truck again tomorrow after work to see if any of these things will get those buggers out. This 'little' project really makes me wish I was in the same state as my parents and had access to the lift and full shop at my dad's work... oh well, at least this isn't my daily driver so it can remain motionless for a while.