Oh, and one other thing. How far does the rear main seal get pressed in? I know that it is not supposed to be pressed all the way in or it will leak.

 

the mitsu tool presses it in .040 past the back edge.

 

so is it set back in all the way? What does the mitsubishi tool look like?

 

Mine have been pressed all the way in and I never had it leak!

You can put some oil on the seal and it should be pretty easy to get it in.

 

the mitsu tool is a round flat disc that has a diameter protusion that seats the seal in .040 past the shoulder. i made one out of a chunk of nylon and turned it to match the seal diameter. some have seated the seal in all the way with luck, but if you install the seal short of all the way in you would need to use vernier calipers to get the seal in straight at .040 or depth mikes. i think getting the seal in straight is a must.

 

what exactly is the shoulder, the front of the housing? Sorry, I'm a little lost

 

so the front of the seal sits in .040" past the front of the housing?

 

I replaced the housing for the rear main as well when I did mine, this way no guesswork, granted I had to drop the oil pan, but ordered the mitsu gasket direct from rockville. No special tools needed this way, and no guesswork.

 

yeah, I wanted to get the whole assembly, but I'm in a time crunch and have to get it done this weekend and the seal itself is all I could get in time.

 

I fully seated mine twice and both times i had slight leaks. I didnt know they didnt fully seat.

which sucks... let me tell you...

 

..........

 

yes the outer lip of the housing(rounded ridge)

 

There's a tool? Wow, I did mine once, I just used a hammer and it hasn't leaked since I replaced it a year ago.

 

Same here. Actually I use a piece of wood and a hammer to put seals in. Typical installation is flush with the edge of whatever the seal is in. I have modified that practice on occasion when the sealing surface is badly worn and has a groove in it.

-SP

 

ok, thanks guys. I know it was installed correctly this time, but there is still a waterfall of oil coming out from above the transfer case, so that definatley wasn't it. I think the rear main housing might be bent. I don't have time to deal with it so it's goin to a shop tomorrow. I'll keep you guys posted as to what the problem was, but I really doubt that its the rear main seal now.

 

rear mains can be a bitch to get seated right. I remember going through 3 of them once, not a good deal at $38 each.

You could probably fabricate a tool out of a piece of PVC pipe, I used something like that last time, it just needs to be even all the way around and to spec is just slightly in beyond the lip.

 

Ive done it 2x with a hammer and screwdriver and no leaks. Now the tranny axle seals are tough.

 

I wouldn't use a hammer and a screwdriver, I did this and wound up denting the seal, although it is possible to do it that way I would rather do it in a way that prevents damage. You need something to spread out the pressure to make it go it evenly. I used a flat piece of wood last time to do it.

The aluminum sheild has nothing to do with the seal, that goes in after the seal housing and oil pan.

 

Wait, there isn't a shield that seals the bottom of the rear main seal housing is there?

 

ill post a pic of the tool.

it was like 40$

 

...like the flywheel cover lower shield

If that wasn't there would it cause a major oil leak? I don't know if it seals part of the rear main seal housing or not.

 

is the oil pan sealed up well? how about the rear main, was the 'spring' inside of the seal that applies pressure to it around the crank? I could see that as poteinally popping out, I filled mine with grease pre-installation to prevent that. Its VITAL that its installed evenly too.

There really is nothing other than the rear main and oil pan on that side of the engine that could potentially leak, unless the block is cracked or something.

My rear main when it first went bad would literally lose 4 quarts of oil in a day, they leak very fast and bad when they do leak.

I think you can use a special dye to add to the oil to look for leaks with a UV light, I had a pesky leak on the rear head somewhere that drove me nuts and it turned out to be a cam seal.

 

heres a side shot of the tool. it covers the end of the crank(fits in) pops the seal right on at the right depth.

 

Where did you buy this if you don't mind....?

 

if mike does not reply i will get in contact with him and find out for you

 

yeah - Ive looked all over and can't find them...
thanks

 

search on my posts for crank seal, i posted the tool shop.

 

All i did was use the old seal to drive it in just a little below the surface. I really think you guys are making too much of this.

 

I was wondering/thinking the same thing....you're probably right.

 

Why did it start leaking... did you do a rebuild or remove the pan and afterwards it started leaking, or did it just randomly start one day?

 

not sure if this is for me....in my case, original has 112,500 miles on it, and I'll be hopfully upgrading the clutch this fall / winter, so I thought I'd change it while trans was out....not leaking now that I know of.

 

hah do it once when its leaking and you wont think its not a "big" deal...

 

? if this is to mean I replaced it when I had the trans last out just for preventative measure.

I think you guys are crazy to buy a mitsu tool to install what you can install in 2 seconds using the old seal and a soft hammer, but it isn't my money.

Do you honestly think you have to seat that seal within thousandths of an inch to get it to work right? The way the crank flange is setup you have a LARGE area (at least twice the width of the seal) to work with, so you would have to install it like a blind woodsman or without oil to mess it up.

 

that would explain why MANY... have leaky rear main seals...

If no one ever had to rip their tranny out and replace the thing... Then I would say you have a point.

I would rather do it right the first time. And ive used that tool 4 times now so yeah I would say the 10$ is WELL worth it

if you fully seat that seal you have a pretty good chance at leaking.

Go search on the 100's of leaking rear main seal threads

I rest my case...

 

? I didn't fully seat it. I just sunk it down to the position the old one was using the old seal as a guide. All you have to do is counter sink it a small amount and make sure it is even all the way around. It is very hard to screw up IMO.

I'm sure you have documented every single leaking rear main seal and attributed it to not having your home made tool or the mitsu one.

If every shop did things like some people on here suggest then you'd have to have forty million dollars worth of tools to cover all cars. Use a little common sense and a calibrated eye ball for a few simple things like this and you won't have problems.