still an inline question

rmousir

Well-known member
Hey all,
I have been reading this forum for a while. In addition to my 66 coupe inline 6 I have a 91 Jeep cherokee inline 4.0 six. My question is in regards to that motor. It is a 5 sp 2 wh drive. I have a oil leak and I believe it is coming from the rear main seal. How hard is this to change? What steps do I take in changing the seal? any advice would be great. Thanks very much for your time and for the forums. :D
 
rear main seals are pains in general. I think on the jeep, if it is like my old one, they basically can do it by removing the tranny, bellhousing, and they can do it that way. But it's been awhile (since 92) since I've seen it done, so I may be way off.

Slade
 
Thanks Slade,

So I am thinking I have to pull the tranny and bell housing to access the seal then pop it back together. How difficult is this job for someone who has never pulled a tranny before?
 
I agree with Slade, rear mains are a pain. But it is also rewarding to do it yourself, get a good repair manual and jump right in there. You will need a good floor jack and some good blocking material. Even a small transmission can get heavy and smash a finger or two when it pops out of there. I assume that it is a manual trans. The clutches are always fun to line up. You will need the little special clutch alignment tool, but I have actually had better luck just lining them up by eyeball. I don't know for sure if you will have to disturb the clutch on that engine or not. Anyway, get in there and have fun, you can't learn any younger :)
Joe
 
I hope you changed the seal by now! It's a two piece steel backed neoprene seal. No need to drop tranny, just oil pan and rear main bearing cap. Botom half is easy, you might want to loosen the other main caps to get the top in and out. The lower half will need starting out with a brass punch, then rotate crank by hand (you might want to pull the sparkers...) while pulling on the seal with pliers (a helper is necessary...). Now carefully put the new top half in and rotate the crank (without the nail) to push the top half back in place. That's the hard part. A little silicone sprayed on it (but not anything thick like motor oil, and no WD-40 -- it can swell the neoprene!) will help it around. Then reassemble everything and torqu all main cap bolts.

May as well look at the condition of the main bearings while you're there. The top half can be removed easy enough. Take a 16d nail and cut it off about 1/2" long. Put that in the main journal oil hole and rotate the crank by hand. Nail head will catch top half and push it out. Make sure nail head isn't scratching the block though (no tight fit). Also make sure you rotate it so the locking notch comes out first!
 
Thanks Frank for catching up on the AMC posts. Need your fountain of knowledge checking these out! :D
 
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