New style rear main seal cup guide. Compress it?

Mountainman · **Posted:** Thu Apr 07, 2016 9:32 pm

ok, I figured it out, and it was that I'm stupid, or the manual really sucks for the main bearing install :furious:

Anyhow, there are TWO washers that like to hide with the old seal, I've been so :furious:

with my lawyers bill lately that I can't think strait lol... I really should have noticed the other one, but since they changed the seal, I just assumed the cup was thicker, but in fact, the thrust washer sits in there perfectly, and can easily be overlooked if your senseless like me :lol:

Oh well, at least it only cost me a $50 seal. The manual is basically devoid of all of the details to do this right. I read a thread where another guy ran into the same thing, so as soon as the crank wouldn't turn I went digging in the trash. I could probably press the seal cup back into shape, but who want's to gamble with a main seal leak?

Thanks for quick replies fellas :JEEPIN:

Hopefully my full rebuilds go a little smoother.

Mike92104 · **Posted:** Fri Apr 08, 2016 12:10 am

Can you post a couple of pictures? Is the guide like a dowell or pin?

olypopper · **Posted:** Fri Apr 08, 2016 12:30 am

X2 on posting a pic. Are you sure it's not a seal installer guide?

Mountainman · **Posted:** Fri Apr 08, 2016 2:03 am

read above, I edited out the original post to save what dignity I have left lol

dhenderz · **Joined:** Fri Dec 11, 2015 9:26 am **Posts:** 164

Agree completely. The SM provides very little helpful insight on replacing the rear main seal. Worst I've seen.

Mountainman · **Posted:** Fri Apr 08, 2016 12:38 pm

dhenderz wrote:

Agree completely. The SM provides very little helpful insight on replacing the rear main seal. Worst I've seen.

Yeah, the parts diagram would be more useful, if it's correct...

Did you or Mike92104 run in to any other parts of the manual that are devoid of details besides the main seal portion?

papaindigo · **Posted:** Fri Apr 08, 2016 1:12 pm

Been working on engines (personally not professionally) for decades and I've never seen a FSM that was correctly or comprehensively written; they always leave often critical stuff out. Parts manuals are sometimes a help but not always.

Mike92104 · **Posted:** Sat Apr 09, 2016 12:15 am

The manual definitely lacked in this instance for me. I don't remember 2 washers though. I remember 1 washer, and 2 oil slinger looking washer that fit into the rear bearing retainer. Neither of the oil rings were mentioned in any manual.

Mountainman · **Posted:** Sun Apr 10, 2016 1:28 pm

Yeah, you're right. There's an outer thrust washer, then oil slinger (I called them both washers), and then another oil slinger on the other side of the seal if I remember correctly. Both the outer slinger and washer like to come out with the seal. The slinger was obvious, but the washer blends in perfectly, and wound up in the trash. The weight difference of the old and new seal if where I should have noticed that the washer was hiding.
Another poor fellow ended up installing the transmission before he found that the crank wouldn't rotate. Thanks to his thread I checked for crank movement, and then knew I had just killed a $50 seal, but at least it was caught it time. I also got the bonus of finding out that the bearing support bolts red locktite hadn't set up, because I didn't get all of the oil out of the holes. I opted to red locktite them, because one bolt had backed completely out and trashed the flywheel, and another one was so loose that it was next. No wonder my seal was leaking! I'm just lucky the seal did leak. If the other three bolts had eventually loosened, the crank bearing and crank would have been trashed. Could have killed the entire engine.
Thanks factory...
They also had a strange piece of metal pinched in with the HG, that had narrowly missed going down a oil return passage. It was the size of a washer, might have killed the balance shafts. oh, it must have been a piece of the HG sheetmetal that wasn't fully punched out of a bolt hole. Pretty surprising the HG worked for 170k! I'm really interested to see if the bottom end of this thing will last to 500k. I've replaced the rest of it :ROTFL:

New style rear main seal cup guide. Compress it?

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