8V71 Rear Main leaking

[Fredward]

Well now that I have the engine out of the bus and the transmission off of it, I see my rear main seal is leaking. I'll be replacing the flywheel with a different one when I install the automatic. Can I replace that main seal without taking the engine apart?

(Hey Clifford thanks for having Don F. call me)

[RJ]

Fred -

IIRC, yes you can - but be sure to get a LH seal for it!

Maybe Clifford or Don will have the part number for you. . .

FWIW & HTH. . .

[bevans6]

When I did mine I had the rear cover off but the seal is just pressed into the rear cover.  There is a replaceable wear ring on the crankshaft that the seal rides on that also needs to be replaced.  You peen it with either a small hammer or a blunt punch to expand the seal and it slips right off the crank tail.  The new one gets tapped on, I made an install tool when I did mine.  The flywheel bolts are supposed to be single use but I reused mine after checking the threads for stretch carefully.  You are supposed to use a special lubricant, torque to a fairly low number then add a specific number of degrees of additional rotation.   The first torque number takes all of the play out of the joint, then the additional rotation adds the pre-load to the bolt.

Brian

[luvrbus]

He is going to need different bolts (shorter) for the flex plate they will probably come with the flex plate torquing to 180-190 ft lbs has worked for years, the new bolts will have a low grade Loctite on the ends (222)

good luck

[Utahclaimjumper]

As said the seal rides in the rear cover(or forward bell housing half) this cover is bolted to the rear of the block using 8 bolts. 4 of those bolts tap into oil passages, be sure those 4 have a copper or brass seal ring under the heads or they will leak just like the rear seal. (Don't use lock washers under these bolts)>>>Dan  (And for gods sake don't use ATV on the threads)