rear mani seal

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gadkins

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just bought a 65 dart to learn on. could anybody give advice as to how i should takle fixing a rear main seal? i've heard that you have to unbolt the motor, others have said just drop the tranny, and so on. any ideas?
 
Well, just dropping the pan can be a pain. You'll probably be on your back awhile fighting.

Taking the engine out is alot of work and back breaking if your not careful. But doing the seal is easy that way.

A catch 22. Try it on you back.
 
thanks rumble. so i can do it by pulling the oil pan off?
 
Step one, get a manual of some sort. Preferably a factory service manual (there are reprints on eBay). This should answer a lot of questions about what needs to be done to remove the pan with the engine in the chassis. It is a pain!

Next, depending on the year of your engine it will either have a neoprene lip seal or the old graphite impregnated rope seal (probably rope on a 65). Either way you can generally only replace the lower half without pulling the crank. I like the rope seals better, but they are best replaced with the engine out.
 
Slant 6 or V8?
Slants are much easier to change in the car. Drop the oil pan, remove the main seal retainer, remove the old seal, and reverse the process. You may have to loosen the main caps to get a little wiggle room but there's only 4 of them.
V8 is a little more complicated since it doesn't have a separate main seal retainer (it's part of the rear main cap), you have a lot less room to work in, and you have 5 main caps to loosen and an oil pump to remove.
Either way, plan on being on your back all day, losing skin, getting eyes full of dirt, and having oil drips in the face.
Or pull the engine.
 
you can buy a tool, usally called a 'sneaky pete' for doing the job with the crank still in

usually contains a corkscrew type tool for pulling the old seal out and another for pulling it back through
 
thanks for all the info. it's got the 273 in it and is the motor that came with the car from the factory. thanks again for the help for a newber
 
could i use a neoprene seal if it has a rope seal in it?
 
Mixing seals isn't a good idea. So if you don't get the top half of the rope out, a neoprene bottom half won't help you much.

A rear main bearing with excessive clearance can add to oil problems. If you are going to go to the hassle of dropping the pan, consider new bearing inserts as well.
 
one more question about the seal. when i put oil in, i can se where it has leaked out, and it begins to leak pretty quick. if it sits for for a while after i put oil in, i assume it leaks out b/c i see, but the stick still reads as full, even though i see the oil leak out. any i deas?
 
Lemme get this straight. You pour oil into the engine and you can see it leak right away?!? Like before you start the engine? If so, your valve cover gaskets are shot. Rear main will leak after shutdown. Engine oil coming out of the bell housing is the obvious clue here. If you have a static leak, it ain't the rear main.
 
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