Rear main seal 350 chevy
- Thread starter PG409
- Start date
I’m not sure what type of seal that you have Keith but I recently changed the rear main in my Olds with the engine installed. It was a 2 piece rope seal, not easy but I did replace it with a neoprene replacement.
I did one several years ago. It was a 2 piece rubber seal. . We undid the pan then took the main cap off. We used a center punch with the point ground off flat. Taped the old one out and taped the new one in. Put lots of lube on the seal before tapping it in place. Cap side seal pops out and new one snaps in.Hardest part was getting the pan off. Couldn’t get it off all the way so we undid it and slid it forward as far as we could . This was back in the mid 70s and if I remember right it was fairly easy job.
Oh my, Johnny, yer kill’n me!!! Haha
I assisted a buddy only 30 years ago with an in chassis rear main seal and don’t recall anything more than I prefer working standing up at an engine rotisserie…. Good luck Keith…there is merit in some of that stuff written above, lots of lube.
I assisted a buddy only 30 years ago with an in chassis rear main seal and don’t recall anything more than I prefer working standing up at an engine rotisserie…. Good luck Keith…there is merit in some of that stuff written above, lots of lube.
I did say it was a “ few “ years ago…
Keith I did mine a couple of months ago. I disconnected the torque converter so that I didn’t put any pressure on the transmission seals. Dropped the pan etc. then I removed the rear main cap and loosened the rest so that the crank hung slightly at the back, I ended up with about 1mm clearance above the crank at the rear main position. I made a thin tool to try and separate the seal from the block and worked at that. I was scared that I was going to break the tool but thankfully I didn’t. Then I shaped a brass drift to match the seal groove before I started to drive the upper seal half out. Took a lot of perseverance but I eventually got about 3-4 mm of seal exposed on the other side and was able to grab it with vice grips and pull it out. Getting the replacement neoprene in was easy and if the original had been neoprene then that would have been easier too.
I’m lucky as i made it so that it is easy to get the pan off from underneath.
Good luck. At one point I thought that I would have to pull the engine out, hope that you don’t have to.
I’m lucky as i made it so that it is easy to get the pan off from underneath.
Good luck. At one point I thought that I would have to pull the engine out, hope that you don’t have to.