Rear main engine seal replacement

[bchene]

Hello,
Finally decided to address the drip drip coming from the real main engine seal. I needed to replace the clutch and figured if I was going that far, what else (or trouble) could I get into.

Anyway, I have a 109 ex-mod rhd (1974?). The trans came out easily - dropped the cross member and lowered the trans and transfer case with a jack. (Replaced trans and transfer seals.) The clutch assembly, flywheel, inner bell housing and oil pan removed with little effort.

Now stuck. I am having a problem removing the rear lower main bearing end cap. I believe you are supposed to use a 'soft' drift to punch it out, or in this case, down. I am not having any success. Reluctant to get out a bigger hammer or 'harder drift'.

I am open to any alternate methods that you have used and found to be effective. Need to get this taken care of, getting cold up here in Maine.

Thanks

Bob

[Tim Smith]

Bob,
You might be fighting against the seals that are already in place. They should be squeezing the cap in place and since it doesn't really move in any direction than down, it's jamming up your progress. you might also have wedged it by hitting one side down but not the other as much. Hard to tell...

Keep using a soft drift. Oak, brass whatever you have. Make sure you are drifting it equally on both sides and when possible, just try to grab it with a set of large pliers and give it a wiggle.

A word of caution. Getting the new seals in place without ruining them can be a pain without the right tool. I forgot what it is called. :o I ended up using a little aluminum can to slide the cap back on but it did not go as smoothly as I hoped. I think I needed to use up two sets of gaskets to get it right and I was working with the engine off the truck. YMMV.

http://lh6.ggpht.com/_Mw8MF8Gu0DU/S0dEcTERkuI/AAAAAAAAEYY/iR2tV2HuHCg/s640/Rear%20Main%20Gasket%201.JPG

[SafeAirOne]

I tried to use the thin aluminum can trick and ended up trashing the t-seals. It's amazing how thick the can can be compared to the gaps on the sides of this bearing cap!

In the end, I ended up sawing an inch off the end of my wife's plastic cutting board and making 2 little HDPE guides out of the piece, just like the real guides. This worked quite nicely and my wife never really noticed that the cutting board was slightly shorter...

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4103/5198514425_afd6b469aa_z.jpg

Of course none of this will help you get the bearing cap OFF, but I figure you'll need to get it back on eventually...

[bkreutz]

What I do to remove the rear bearing cap is after removing the 2 bolts, I put them back in the holes in the cap (not threading them in) and then squeezing the bolts together with my hand it gives me a handle to wiggle the cap back and forth while pulling down. Works for me.

[Tim Smith]

Great suggestions Mark and Gale. I'm adding them to my notebook now.
:thumb-up:

[SafeAirOne]

...here's a link to the write-up on a work-around for the rear main seal guide special tool. I'm not sure if the 2.25 has the same kind of rear main seal as the 2.5, but I had to find a way of expanding the oil seal around the rear crankshaft flange without the rare special tool in order to install the flywheel housing on my 2.5:

Check out: http://gunsandrovers.yuku.com/topic/6115

[Tim Smith]

...here's a link to the write-up on a work-around for the rear main seal guide special tool. I'm not sure if the 2.25 has the same kind of rear main seal as the 2.5, but I had to find a way of expanding the oil seal around the rear crankshaft flange without the rare special tool in order to install the flywheel housing on my 2.5:

Check out: http://gunsandrovers.yuku.com/topic/6115
I can't drink that much coke zero. Either way, make sure this one makes it to the new forum. :thumb-up:

[bchene]

Thank you for your comments.

Removed the bearing cap with a little more directed force. Bigger hammer!

Replaced the t-shaped gaskets using a couple of feeler gauges to slide in the cap. Slid right into place after selecting the correct size.

Maybe have it back together before the first snow!!!

Bob