clunk
NAXJA Forum User
- Location
- West Kootenays, BC (canada)
just finished the rear seal job yesterday, the jeep doesn't leak a single drop anymore, runs smoother probably due to the sludge being removed from the pan/the oil pickup being cleaned(although it could just be in my mind haha), and my oil pressure looks to have risen a few PSI as well, I had good oil pressure before, but this put me at the same specs as when the engine was brand new(this is probably due to the oil pickup being somewhat restricted in flow and now being clean).
Upon removing the old rear seal it was pretty evident why it wouldn't seal any more...there WAS no sealing lip any more, it had pretty much cracked and crumbled right off. I tried to take a picture of what the sealing lip looked like, but couldn't get a decent picture. In the picture I did snap, you can see a large chunk of the seal missing..this was missing when I pulled it out, and had probably been like that for a while. The old seal was rock hard and has no give whatsoever.
Overall I'd say the mechanical difficulty of doing the job is around 2/10 for anyone who can turn a wrench, use a torque wrench and follow basic directions.
Changing the seal is only a 30 minute job, the majority of the time was spent wrestling the oil pan off, cleanign it out, checking each bearing for wear, scraping the original gasket off the block/pan (no clue what they used for a sealant but it was really stuck on there). All in all it took around 6-7 hours, taking my time, cleaning everything so it gleamed and checking everything while I was in the engine so I didn't have to do it again down the road.
old seal (notice nearly no seal edge and large chunk missing and total lack of sealing lip):
and a comparison of the new seal that went in:
A few tips that I found make it easier ..sorry if it's long winded but these are just observations that I didn't see in the FSM and which may or may not have been in the online how-to's or might have been kinda vague, just thought I'd throw them all in here in one spot to make it easy to find:
-if you are working on a stock height vehicle, use a bottle jack between the frame/front axle to get that last 1/4" of crucial droop. My steering and suspension was completely maxed out and I snapped both swaybar links trying to remove them to get more droop(they were corroded pretty good and I had a huge pry-bar going). Guess I won't be running those any more
-turn wheels full lock to the right before you start removing the oil pan, this gives a little extra room around the steering damper to work with.
-use the one piece rubber oil pan gasket from felpro, mine was blue..don't remember the P/N offhand. It was ribbed and had metal eyelets in the holes to ensure it didn't get crushed and cause leaks. It was around $45CAD but worth the cost IMO. I could never imagine wrestling that thing in with the 4 piece gasket. Use tiny zip-ties in the gasket and oil pan holes to keep it all aligned and cinched together. Once you have the pan/gasket in place under the vehicle thread a few bolts so the pan will stay up, then snip the zip-ties out of there with sidecutters, pull them out and proceed with putting things back together as usual. this REALLY helps keep the gasket and pan aligned when you are wrestling it back in. On a lifted vehicle you probably have enough clearance to get the pan in without worry, but on the stock vehicle it was really really tight.
-take the time to clean the oil pump pickup/screen, remove all the built up sludge at the bottom of the pan and do a really good job cleaning everything up under there. this might help if your oil pressure is slowly dwindling and you find alot of buildup. mine had around a full quart of built up sludge at the bottom of the pan(which would eventually clog the pickup screen leading to horrible problems) may as well check all the bearings you can too and replace if necesary..I gaurantee this isn't a job you want to do again unless you really have to.
-be carefull tapping the old seal out. If you don't get it right away and hammer on it too hard, the metal core will start to mushroom and if you keep tapping it through, it could score the crankshaft in a HORRIBLE way as you push it right through to the other side, wrecking your crankshaft. if it's being stubborn, try switching to the other side and give it a few taps and it should pop out. once you have the seal broken you can easily pull it out by hand.
-use soap on the outside of the seal/motor oil on the inside of the lip and it'll slide right in like...well I won't go there. Keep a finger tight against the seal lip and the top of the seal to avoid nicking the seal lip which can easily happen. The FSM calls for soap/motor oil, and seriously after going through all the hassle of taking things apart and cleaning them I didn't want to risk a bad seal using anything else so I just followed the directions.
-clean the threads of ALL bolts to ensure an accurate torque reading. If you can, use a compressor and spray air through each hole to clean out anything residing in there that may screw up your torque readings.
-check and DOUBLE check the torque wrench before you do the bearing cap bolts!! I was using a friends shop and used his torque wrench...it was different from mine and had I not taken the time to get a demo on exactly how it works, I would have improperly torqued the bolts and spun a bearing..which would have sucked!
If you do everything carefully, take the time to inspect bearings for wear and make sure you don't nick the new seal as you install it you won't have any leaks and you shouldn't have to go to the hassle of crawling under there and pulling the pan again.
Upon removing the old rear seal it was pretty evident why it wouldn't seal any more...there WAS no sealing lip any more, it had pretty much cracked and crumbled right off. I tried to take a picture of what the sealing lip looked like, but couldn't get a decent picture. In the picture I did snap, you can see a large chunk of the seal missing..this was missing when I pulled it out, and had probably been like that for a while. The old seal was rock hard and has no give whatsoever.
Overall I'd say the mechanical difficulty of doing the job is around 2/10 for anyone who can turn a wrench, use a torque wrench and follow basic directions.
Changing the seal is only a 30 minute job, the majority of the time was spent wrestling the oil pan off, cleanign it out, checking each bearing for wear, scraping the original gasket off the block/pan (no clue what they used for a sealant but it was really stuck on there). All in all it took around 6-7 hours, taking my time, cleaning everything so it gleamed and checking everything while I was in the engine so I didn't have to do it again down the road.
old seal (notice nearly no seal edge and large chunk missing and total lack of sealing lip):
and a comparison of the new seal that went in:
A few tips that I found make it easier ..sorry if it's long winded but these are just observations that I didn't see in the FSM and which may or may not have been in the online how-to's or might have been kinda vague, just thought I'd throw them all in here in one spot to make it easy to find:
-if you are working on a stock height vehicle, use a bottle jack between the frame/front axle to get that last 1/4" of crucial droop. My steering and suspension was completely maxed out and I snapped both swaybar links trying to remove them to get more droop(they were corroded pretty good and I had a huge pry-bar going). Guess I won't be running those any more
-turn wheels full lock to the right before you start removing the oil pan, this gives a little extra room around the steering damper to work with.
-use the one piece rubber oil pan gasket from felpro, mine was blue..don't remember the P/N offhand. It was ribbed and had metal eyelets in the holes to ensure it didn't get crushed and cause leaks. It was around $45CAD but worth the cost IMO. I could never imagine wrestling that thing in with the 4 piece gasket. Use tiny zip-ties in the gasket and oil pan holes to keep it all aligned and cinched together. Once you have the pan/gasket in place under the vehicle thread a few bolts so the pan will stay up, then snip the zip-ties out of there with sidecutters, pull them out and proceed with putting things back together as usual. this REALLY helps keep the gasket and pan aligned when you are wrestling it back in. On a lifted vehicle you probably have enough clearance to get the pan in without worry, but on the stock vehicle it was really really tight.
-take the time to clean the oil pump pickup/screen, remove all the built up sludge at the bottom of the pan and do a really good job cleaning everything up under there. this might help if your oil pressure is slowly dwindling and you find alot of buildup. mine had around a full quart of built up sludge at the bottom of the pan(which would eventually clog the pickup screen leading to horrible problems) may as well check all the bearings you can too and replace if necesary..I gaurantee this isn't a job you want to do again unless you really have to.
-be carefull tapping the old seal out. If you don't get it right away and hammer on it too hard, the metal core will start to mushroom and if you keep tapping it through, it could score the crankshaft in a HORRIBLE way as you push it right through to the other side, wrecking your crankshaft. if it's being stubborn, try switching to the other side and give it a few taps and it should pop out. once you have the seal broken you can easily pull it out by hand.
-use soap on the outside of the seal/motor oil on the inside of the lip and it'll slide right in like...well I won't go there. Keep a finger tight against the seal lip and the top of the seal to avoid nicking the seal lip which can easily happen. The FSM calls for soap/motor oil, and seriously after going through all the hassle of taking things apart and cleaning them I didn't want to risk a bad seal using anything else so I just followed the directions.
-clean the threads of ALL bolts to ensure an accurate torque reading. If you can, use a compressor and spray air through each hole to clean out anything residing in there that may screw up your torque readings.
-check and DOUBLE check the torque wrench before you do the bearing cap bolts!! I was using a friends shop and used his torque wrench...it was different from mine and had I not taken the time to get a demo on exactly how it works, I would have improperly torqued the bolts and spun a bearing..which would have sucked!
If you do everything carefully, take the time to inspect bearings for wear and make sure you don't nick the new seal as you install it you won't have any leaks and you shouldn't have to go to the hassle of crawling under there and pulling the pan again.
