leaking rear main seal

[LaGrasta]

I called a local shop and he said for $150 (parts& labor), they replace it. Is this somehting I can do? If not, is $150 fair. He said it would be about 3 hours labor.
What about these seals you "pull through" without removing the tranny?

 

[rickwrench]

Hi Anthony,
I myself would definitely let somebody else do it for $150.00! It is a nasty, dirty job. I've done this one a few times, and the novelty has worn off.
The procedure for "cheating a rope seal" is:
Drop the oil pan, and try to yank the half of the old seal behind the crankshaft out with a pair of pliers or a hook. Sometimes a miracle happens and most of it comes out. To get the rest out use a heavy guage solid COPPER wire to poke and scape it out. Use copper because it won't scratch the seal surface. After an hour or so of fun, laying on your back in a pool of oil, you ought to have 99% of the old crumbled seal out. Take about two feet of solid copper wire and stab the wire through the end of the new seal about 3/8 of an inch from the end. Lube up the seal and seal passage with motor oil (or lubriplate, or vaseline) and pull the seal through using the wire until about the same amount sticks out on each end. Snip off the wire and jam as much of the seal back up into the slot as you can, and then trim it nearly flush. Put everything back together.
If you are fast, you could probably get the whole job done in an hour or two, start to finish. It's not a very hard job, just very dirty and very tedious. How much is your time worth?
Rick(wrench)

 

[CobraSix]

$150? Let them do it. But that's because I wouldn't want to mess with dropping my oil pan again.

Slade

 

[BIGREDRASA]

You might find someone to do it for $100, in Nebraska. Otherwise, $150 sounds fair for your part of the country. It's one of those jobs that can go horribly wrong, unless you pull the engine. Let the experts do it.

 

[LaGrasta]

I thought it wasn't going to be all that hard, but since ALL of you seem to think I should pay, I guess I'll buckle under the pressure. I hate having anyone else work on my car. Already, I'm predicting my oil pan being overtorqued...

 

[strat1960s]

I know on some chevy diesels that use the rope seals, we cheated and loosened the crank support bolts and let the crank drop a little. BUT, that was on a 6.2 diesel that had been pulled out.
$150 sounds very reasonable.

Ted

 

[DYNOED250]

150 to get a rear main seal done is dirt cheap...... id make sure it comes with waranty 150 isnt cheap if it doesnt fix the prob

 

[LaGrasta]

Well, it's done now. It cost me $200 even. If it cures the leak, I'll be thrilled. Of course I'm second guessing everything. "Did he torque that correctly, did he accidently pinch that, does he know it goes this way and not that way". I'm sure tomorrow, I'll go over the car to make sure he didn't misalign any of my anal retention improvements.
I did stay around while he did it to see the crank and bottom of the pan. All is perfect, not a bit of sludge or metallics that I could see.

 

[LaGrasta]

By the way, he didn't remove the crank, he just soaked the top half of the seal in slippery stuff and worked it up through. It had better have seated.

 

[BIGREDRASA]

The trick was not the installation, but the removal of the hardened, brittle remnants of the old seal. You can easily damage the crankshaft if you don't know what you're doing. When you know what you're doing, it looks easy.

 

[rickwrench]

Yeah, removal of the old seal is by far the hardest part. If it's really old, it takes forever. It's way too easy to say "good enough" and quit before you've got it all out. Thick copper wire and lots of patience.
Rick(wrench)