Rear main seal changed over the weekend

A couple of weekends ago, my wife and I took the 90 XJ on it's maiden trip after I installed a 3" lift and new wheels and tires. While on the trip we noticed oil leaking which turned out to be the rear main seal. This past weekend was the time to attack it.
Picked up the parts Saturday morning and consulted the FSM. First thing I saw was they wanted everything removed except the gas tank. (Well, a slight exageration) but list included transmission, starter, disconnecting exhaust manifold etc. Searched the forum here and put up a couple of questions as the job progressed. (Thanks again to all that helped with advice). :wave:
Wound up raising XJ and putting it on blocks just high enough so the tires were touching the ground. Removed pan and flex plate. Pan was a real dog to get loose from the engine. Wound up bending the edges some but beat them back straight. Scraping the gaskets was a real treat also.
Took a bit to get the upper seal out but after that it was not real bad.
Make a long story short, got the job done seal no longer leaks and the XJ is back on the road again.

Was removing the flex plate even necessary?

I've read that you only need to drop the pan, remove the rear main bearing cap, and start working on the upper seal.

FSM said you had to drop all that? Dang...good thing the 96 FSM didn't go through all that draaaaama.

Drop oilpan.
Remove bearing girdle (if present on 96+ blocks).
Remove rear main bearing cap.
Carefully poke the upper seal out.
Clean surfaces.
Soak seals in oil, reinstall.
RTV on the outer, chamfered edges of the rear main cap.
Bolt it up.
Torque 'er down.
Change oil pump pickup.
Reinstall oilpan.
Refill engine and drive....

Not too bad...

Oil pump pickup, where's the best place to get one of those?

Got mine @ NAPA (or was it Checker?) a few weeks ago when I did my RMS.

Edited to add:
Additionally, this would be a great time to change the o-rings in your oil filter adapter or even change the adapter to the newer horizontal ones if you've got the old one. You can run a larger SAE-threaded filter (Wix 51515, etc) too.

waxer said:

Was removing the flex plate even necessary?

I've read that you only need to drop the pan, remove the rear main bearing cap, and start working on the upper seal.

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I guess you might be able to do it with the flex plate in place but it would be awful tight. It only took four bolts to remove and gave my fat fingers a little more room to work.

azdesertrhino said:

I guess you might be able to do it with the flex plate in place but it would be awful tight. It only took four bolts to remove and gave my fat fingers a little more room to work.

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Are you talking about the flexplate, or the inspection cover? The inspection cover comes off pretty easily, and in some cases you may even want to remove the exhaust downtube but the flexplate itself is in the bellhousing...

I will be doing this job on my 96 real soon. With 150k should I replace the oil pump to? I mean I will already be doing clutch, flywheel, rear trans output shaft seal, RMS and oil pickup. What else should I do while I'm in there?

BA

Is replacing the oil pickup really necessary? Or is it just one of those ‘while you have it apart replace it’ sorta things?

Sorry, my bad terminology, the inspection plate was removed.

Replacing the oil pickup is one of those "while you have it apart, because you don't want to go back in there in six weeks" kind of things...

However:

FSM said:

If the oil pump is not to be serviced, DO NOT disturb position of oil inlet tube and strainer assembly in pump body. If the tube is moved within the pump body, a replacement tube and strainer assembly must be installed to assure an airtight seal.

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...just something to think about. I replaced mine because I was there already, and with 183,000 miles it had gunk in the pickup but of course I couldn't confirm that until I had the whole thing apart anyway.

If you raise the front of the vehicle,remove only the top bolts on the shocks,then place jackstands under the front sub frame,you can get enough clearance to remove the oil pan with a little less hassle.
Supposed to give maybe 2-3 inches more drop due to the shocks being dropped.......

churky89 said:

If you raise the front of the vehicle,remove only the top bolts on the shocks,then place jackstands under the front sub frame,you can get enough clearance to remove the oil pan with a little less hassle.
Supposed to give maybe 2-3 inches more drop due to the shocks being dropped.......

Click to expand...

Or you could do a 4.5" lift and not have to worry about all that