I'm trying to change my rear Main oil seal and need some advise. The motor is a 67 400 with what look like a very old rope seal in it, the bottom half just fell apart when I pulled it out and turned to dust. It was in there pretty good no way was it going to slide out of there and thats the problem, the top half is welded in there good no way to just turn the crank an slide it out. Now I'm committed the seal is shot so no tunning back, now I have to try to dig it out of there. I'm changing it out for a neoprene seal from TA and the motor is still in the car, pulling it is not really a option. So if any one has some old tricks to get that thing out of there I really need to hear them. I've been trying for hours to get it out with no luck and have run out of Ideas. Thanks
Pete there is a Thread on here about that issue, use the search, very use full but be careful not to gouge the area around the seal because the new one will not seal properly and that will be frustrating an costly to repair again. check the search for rear seal info. Chris
Thanks Chris, I always try to use the search first but every thing I've found did not seem to cover my situation. Most of the ones I've found cover trying to rotate the crank and gently try to pull the rope thru, thats not going to happen with mine. For some reason the seal in my 400 seems to be glued to the rear main & block its not moving any where. I have been forced to trying to dig it out with a wire and various jury rigged rotary drilling contraption with little success. I think I might try to drill a small hole in the crank away from where the front of the neoprene seal contact the crank and put a small metal dowel in it with a small protrusion onto the void in the block and rotate the crank to hopefully dig out the remnants of the rope seal. This might be a bit extreme but as I said I'm running out of ideas and patients as well. I'm hoping some one here might have a alternative method that I can't see. Until then I will continue to use the search for a solution but as I said so far the solution doesn't seem to be there.
Have you thought of loosing all the main caps and dropping the crank enough to get it there to do what you need and then re torquing the bolts when done?
I've thought about doing that but with the crank's still hooked up to the transmission I'm not sure if it would have moved at all. That might have been the way to go but I had to move on this so I drilled a 3/32 hole as far back as I could & cut it off so about 1/4' stuck out of the hole, spun the crank and cut a trail through the stuck rope then it was easy to get a pipe cleaner in there and force the remains out and clean the void out. The hole is small enough and far back that it wont make contact with the new neoprene seal's lip that contacts the crank, well thats the theory anyway. I wont know if i hosed myself for a while now but its behind me now and I got to move forward, I think it will workout all right. I'm not sure why this rope seal would not just spin out of there like it seemed to do for every other motor I've read about but believe me it was not moving, I had to cut it out lucky me. It's out and a new seal's in and I managed to change a hour job into a 3 day ordeal at least I know the new seal wont be so hard to change, now I get to try to get this nice newly painted pan back on with out scratching the hell out of it more fun ahead.
Your a brave soul. drilling a hole in the crank would have been the last and furthest thing from my mind.
They dont come out easy. I created a thread totally on this subject, there is a tool specially made for this job.
I wish I could have found that thread I looked for 3 day, well from the 1st anyway. I had a feeling there might be a tool for this but I just got impatient and this was the only thing I could think of. Believe me I agree with Briz on this one drilling a hole in the crank was not taken lightly, it did scare the hell out of me but i could not find a alternative. The hole was very small and like I said as far back as I could get it and stay in the groove. Pulling the motor out was not a option and I'm working on a 4x8 sheet of plywood on top of dirt so pulling the main caps might have created more problem than I'd have liked and I wasn't sure it would have done any good with the transmition still hooked up so I passed on that idea. So I drilled and it seemed to work I wont know for sure till I start the motor but the way the seal is it wont even contact the hole. It wasn't easy getting that small of a Bit up in that little aria but I got it and it worked so I'm happy for now, thanks for the input. Here's a shot of my nice work aria
Geesh bub, if your that far torn down why not go ahead and pull it and do it right. 11 more bolts and its outta there. Bell housing, convereter and engine mounts. pull it and go. once set on a stand inside or under cover your good to go. Gladd you got it figured out. Working on the ground and in the dirt is no fun. Been there and done that!
Dang,,, I am with Briz on this situation,,, I would have looked at that mess for just about 1/10th of a second before jerking that puppy out of there.....then I would be able to get to every thing on the body and in the engine.... I pulled a nailhead by myself in a junk yard using 3 boards and a come-along.... and it was a lot heavier than that engine....:Smarty:
Like I said I'm working alone, I have no way to get the motor out and I had no intentions of going this far with the body believe me. My parts car was just too nice so I had to use the inner fenders, the fenders and the doors. when I tore down the motor everything was still on the car and I had no intention of going this far but things change and here I am. Taking the bell housing and converter bolts off are the easy part, lifting that little hunk of iron out of whats left of the engine bay is where I'm stopped. Dirt is not a good surface for my engine hoist, the last thing I want to do is lay on my back and work upside down, I'm way to old for this. Unfortunately there is no inside to work on it unless you count my living room and i think thats where my wife will draw the line so I'm stuck with what I have I'm not going to whine about it there's lots that have less. I guess I could of worked on it like Doc did and do what ever to get it out but then it would have to go back in and as stated earlier I'm too old to mess with that. I'm satisfied with what I've done so far things are going back together now so I'm happy
I fully rebuilt a 455 in my living room back in the day never giving any thought on how I was going to get it outside and into the car. I was single then and life was oh so much simpler.
Considering what your working with you did good. However, only time will tell if it stops the leak. Once you dropped the pan, and the rear main cap, you could have used the tool at that point. But this is an experience you will always remember, and your braver than most to drill it, I never would. Good to know it can be done, with just a common drill, I assume that is what you used, probubly battery powered.
I never could have gotten in there close enough with a regular drill with such a small 3/32" bit so I had to get creative. I bought a quick change bit that fit into a regular 1/4" bit holder then I ground the other end of the holder's edges off so it was a round 1/4" shaft that I could fit in a pneumatic die grinder that I could get in to that tight space. I used a spring loaded center punch to get a good location, held my breath, started the grinder, closed my eyes and drilled. Like I said it seemed to work there was minimal impact on my crank shaft so it is far enough back that it won't make contact with the front lip on the seal so I really don't think it will effect it, I'll find out soon enough. I read all over this (when it was up) and other forum's and could not find any reference to a tool although I'm sure one exists i cant be the only person to have this problem. I know old small block Chevy's have the same seal but I had no luck finding anything on it so this is what I came up with.
I admire you're attitude. However, grunt, blood, sweat, and tears can get you a long way, but sometimes you just have to have the right tools.
Just for future search purposes, here's the "Sneaky Pete" tool. http://www.amazon.com/Lisle-27000-Sneaky-Pete-Tool/dp/B0002SRCJW
Thanks for the link I do know about this tool as I used them on small block Chevy's.The problem I was having is the rope seal just turned to dust in the center and it was some how welded in the groove it was not going to spin out of there no matter what I did. I had to dig it out and that was the only way I could come up with. I had to look twice a your board name as that how I sign my name J Pete Hovey I thought it kind of funny.
