rear main seal - any hope?

[89stangWhiz]

Hello all. I am pretty sure I know the answer is tough luck, but I will take about any ideas. When I got my 89 gt mustang, she had an oil leak. A few years ago, I replaced the entire driveline. While I was at it I upgraded to a 7 qt oil pan and replaced the seals. I really wanted to get rid of my oil leak.
It was easily found, as we replaced the rear main seal, the *** who owned it before me did a terrible job replacing it. I guess he just hammered it in with a screwdriver. The housing is scratched, pretty badly, in several places. He just didnt know what he was doing and hurt the engine. So, we put the new seal in perfectly,(it wasnt even in there good on top of all the beating it took, surprise surprise) hoping it would take care of it. Well, it helped, but it couldnt solve the problem.
So, now its just a somewhat small leak, but still gets on my new tranny etc... If I get back in there again, any ideas if I can do anything to salvage my poor engine? I'm thinking about getting a new one anyway, but incase I decided to hang on to what I have for awhile or just keep this engine and rebuild... Thanks for any ideas.

 

[88gt]

You may try putting a thin layer of RTV on the block before putting the seal in. When I say thin, put some RTV on your finger and smooth it out..


Good Luck

 

[Car RamRod]

if you do that use the orange high-temp stuff.

 

[jackchan]

even if its damaged you could still possibly seal it with RTV and a new rear seal. I have always used the black.........why- because it doesnt look chevy orange, and its always worked well for me. I've probably installed at least 40 of those rear main seals.........best way to pull em out is to use self taping or sheetrock screws.......screw em in with a cordless drill one in top one in bottem and one at 3 oclock and one at 9 oclock........then yank em out with channel lock pliers using a crossing motion...........has always worked great for me!.

then puttin back in.........make sure not to mess up your rear main seal ....put oil on the inside of the seal (by the side that goes to the crank) and RTV on the outer edge....and use a flat surface and hammer to lightly tap it in flatly!
good luck........hopefully the RTV will seal it off for ya!
post a couple pictures of the damage if you have a camera and time to shoot it!
good luck
Jack

 

[v8only]

good post. I recently did the screw method, but the drill can slip off the rear main, grooving the crank. To avoid this, you can use a punch to put a dent in the rear main so that the drill bit does not slide around. Nice idea with the self tapping screws too, maybe those won't slide around eh?

Also, I use the old rear main over the new one, then tap with a hammer on the old seal, and that will compress it nicely.

Since the last owner of your car apparently was a moron with a screwdriver, chances are, he scratched/grooved the crank. This is the likely source of your leak past the rear main. When you pull it all apart again, take a look at it. They sell sleaves that you simply slide on over the end of the crank, providing a new fresh surface for the seal to mate against. Best of luck!

 

[5spd GT]

Anybody know where to get those sleeves...I had the part number at one time but have lost it since??

So how do you press in the rear main seal without the inner seal "catching" the crank and kinking it. I had that problem last time. I'm sure someone familiar with what a rear main seal is setup like knows what I'm talking about.

Anybody use a rear main seal installer? remover?

 

[v8only]

I just tapped the rear main in gently around all sides, and have never had a problem yet?

 

[st5150]

Anybody know where to get those sleeves...I had the part number at one time but have lost it since??

So how do you press in the rear main seal without the inner seal "catching" the crank and kinking it. I had that problem last time. I'm sure someone familiar with what a rear main seal is setup like knows what I'm talking about.

Anybody use a rear main seal installer? remover?

Felpro makes the Seal Saver sleeve. I forget the part number, its 4 digits if I remember right. Maybe 5 digits.

There is a special tool you use to press it in. Its bascially a huge aluminum or hard plastic socket shaped deal that goes over the seal saver. I believe you also use the same tool to slide on the actual rear main seal, but all I do is lube up the inner part of the seal with motor oil and use a flat piece of wood and a small hammer to gently tap it in.

 

[89stangWhiz]

Anybody use a rear main seal installer? remover?

Actually, my dad is a machinist, so he made a 'press' out of stainless at work for me, and we used that to press in the new seal so that it would go on perfectly, and not crooked.
Further, about not making it press against the crank, how we did it so that we didnt hit it with a hammer at all, was he made it fit the bolt pattern of the flywheel. So we basically bolted in the new seal. It also had a 'lip', so we could tighten it up and it would slide the seal in, but the press would only get it back as far as we wanted because of the way he made it.
I wonder if i have pics from when we did that...I'll try to check tonight. Otherwise unfortunately I probably wont be messing with the engine again for a little while, winter is coming and its about time to replace my wearing out heater core