Help in replacing rear crank seal

[oldstangs23]

I am attempting to replace the rear crank seal in my '68 289. I removed the rear coupling, and loosened the rest of the crank couplings. I then manually turned the motor over in attempt to remove the upper portion of the split seal. I applied pressure to one side of the seal as I turned over the motor, and part of seal moved. However, I am unable to remove the rest of the seal. Does anyone have an idea how to remove the other half of the seal without removing the entire crank? If it matters, the motor is out of the car.

Any info would be helpful.

Thanks

 

[D.Hearne]

Rope seal or split neoprene? If the bearings have a good number of miles on them, it might be wise to take this oportunity to change them as well. Be careful not to damage the knurning on the crank just forward of the seal. You could take some object like a wood dowel to push on the seal to get it to move around the crank if it's a split neoprene seal. The rope seal will only come out by pulling it around the crank. Many parts houses used to sell a tool for this operation.

 

[302 coupe]

sometimes there is a pin in the lip where the seal goes, to keep the seal from spinning. It also makes the seal hard to rotate/remove. It seems that the pin is mainly used in conjunction with the tarred rope seal (man that sounds primitive). If it is a 2 pc rubber seal, you should be able to spin it around and remove, the pin can't be used with the rubber 2 piece seal. I had to replace the seal on my car a few years ago, 2 pc rubber, wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. If its rubber, it should come on out without having to remove the crank.

 

[oldstangs23]

It is a rope seal, I think; since the bottom seal looked like a piece of rope. I did use a little wood dowel (let's say on the left side of the seal) and the left side moved about an inch and a half. However, I expected to see the seal protruding an inch and a half on the other side, I do not see that. I somehow have got to pull on the right side of the seal to get some movement. there is a tool for such a job?

 

[krash kendall]

I think it is called a Sneaky Pete.

 

[D.Hearne]

Seems to me that the pin for the rope seal was just in the main cap, but I could be wrong.

 

[302 coupe]

I'm thinking its in the block and he just mashed the seal further up in there trying to get it out. I'm not real sure though, its been a long time since I've worked on an early block with that setup. It would seem like a bad design (uncharacterisitc of Ford) to have the pin in the block, that would make it necessary to remove the crank to replace the seal.

 

[oldstangs23]

I bought a tool for 30 bucks and it worked like a charm. thanks for all of the input.