Hi I just recently bought a 1991 Jeep XJ with 88,000 original miles on it in January. I assume it has been sitting for quiet some time because a lot of the gaskets are going which leads me to this problem. I was leaking massive amounts of oil so I got underneath to inspect & seen that oil was coming from the oil pan & transfer case, it would leak on to the down pipe & create tons of smoke when the exhaust heated up. I have the XJ jacked up on the frame rails so the axle is hanging down a lot but now I’m trying to install the new oil pan & it’s not fitting. Is the axle dropped too much? I heard this on another post but didn’t think that could be a actual thing. My downpipe is rusted to the converter so I can’t take off the down pipe with out cutting it off. I also have two bottle jacks on the axle to the frame to drop it even more but it’s still not clearing the axle. I know there is a lot of info out there but I’ve tried everything expect taking apart the axle which I thought was overkill. I have the fel pro oil pan but could it be to big? I’m new to posting on the forms & any advice would help me out a lot, thanks!!

Thanks I really appreciate the advice! This job as been a real PITA since day 1.

Yeah you need to lift the front axle a little bit with the jacks, might need to lift one aid whither than the other so you can twist the pan in there.

I got it !!! Finally after three days of just needing the oil pan on! It turns out I did have the axle droped way too much. I used jack stands under the frame rails so the Jeep was off the ground pretty high then jacked up the axle until the i was able to wiggle in the pan. I hope this post will help someone in the future. I didn’t need to take off anything besides the starter & the passenger side (I want to say transmission or transfer axe bolt) thanks to everyone who took the time to post!