Okay, so I'm sitting here, staring at this pile of fresh goodies that's waiting to go in the Horsey: King Cobra clutch kit ($169 from UPR), new Fenco flywheel ($70 Autozone), a couple cans o' brake cleaner ($8), and three quarts of MaxLife DexIII (I forget how much). Only thing I need to get still is the one part that was the cause of this whole clutch swap in the first place: the front tranny seal.
The front seal - I think input shaft seal is the technical name - has been leaking tranny fluid and flinging it all around inside the bellhousing, and thereby soaking the clutch. Now that the clutch has become so glazed from this crap, it freewheels if I give it much more than 50% throttle. What irritates the snot out of me is that I've had this exact same problem with that piece of crap Honda CRX that I drove around last year for a beater car, and I went through no less than THREE clutches, input shaft seals, AND rear main seals before I finally unloaded that turdpile onto some poor schmuck for $2000. I even swapped in a totally separate tranny into that thing, and it STILL wound up leaking again! I am soooooo not wanting to repeat history by having to re-do the clutch on this car, too, for the same reasons; I'd sooner revert back to an AOD than have to deal with changing the clutch out repeatedly because of a stupid $5 seal.
Now, I know that Chicago Rawhide, Fel-Pro, and some others make a "Sleeve n' Seal" kit for these things. Not sure exactly, though, if that's what I'm going to need here, or if I should chance it with a regular seal. The way I understand it, the seal kit has this sleeve that wraps around the shaft and helps it seal up better against the seal, since the shaft presumably has been worn down in that spot or something. Do I need to have the shaft milled down to use this, sort of like going .010" under on a rod or crank bearing, or do I just poke it on there as-is?
Also, being that this tranny is from an AOD to T-5 swap that was done about a year or so ago, what exactly would cause the front seal to go out this soon? Input shaft bearing going out? Driver abuse? (The previous owner was an 18-year-old twit that beat the snot out of the poor car daily.) High miles in general? Bad installation? Maybe never been changed out in the first place?
I'm hoping that changing the seal out, once I've already got the tranny dropped and dragged out, is just a matter of popping it off with a screwdriver or seal hook, and then carefully tapping the new one in.
Sorry for the lengthy post. Any advice is greatly appreciated.
The front seal - I think input shaft seal is the technical name - has been leaking tranny fluid and flinging it all around inside the bellhousing, and thereby soaking the clutch. Now that the clutch has become so glazed from this crap, it freewheels if I give it much more than 50% throttle. What irritates the snot out of me is that I've had this exact same problem with that piece of crap Honda CRX that I drove around last year for a beater car, and I went through no less than THREE clutches, input shaft seals, AND rear main seals before I finally unloaded that turdpile onto some poor schmuck for $2000. I even swapped in a totally separate tranny into that thing, and it STILL wound up leaking again! I am soooooo not wanting to repeat history by having to re-do the clutch on this car, too, for the same reasons; I'd sooner revert back to an AOD than have to deal with changing the clutch out repeatedly because of a stupid $5 seal.
Now, I know that Chicago Rawhide, Fel-Pro, and some others make a "Sleeve n' Seal" kit for these things. Not sure exactly, though, if that's what I'm going to need here, or if I should chance it with a regular seal. The way I understand it, the seal kit has this sleeve that wraps around the shaft and helps it seal up better against the seal, since the shaft presumably has been worn down in that spot or something. Do I need to have the shaft milled down to use this, sort of like going .010" under on a rod or crank bearing, or do I just poke it on there as-is?
Also, being that this tranny is from an AOD to T-5 swap that was done about a year or so ago, what exactly would cause the front seal to go out this soon? Input shaft bearing going out? Driver abuse? (The previous owner was an 18-year-old twit that beat the snot out of the poor car daily.) High miles in general? Bad installation? Maybe never been changed out in the first place?
I'm hoping that changing the seal out, once I've already got the tranny dropped and dragged out, is just a matter of popping it off with a screwdriver or seal hook, and then carefully tapping the new one in.
Sorry for the lengthy post. Any advice is greatly appreciated.
