Front Main Seal Removal?

[240 2NR]

Ok, I'm feeling like a bit of a moron here:-/ . I keep searching for threads where people have removed their main seals but most just seem to be "I removed it, it was easy" without describing how it was done so easily. The FSM is also of little help, stating onlyt the obvious, "remove main seal" (or something to that effect).

So I have pieces of my main seal off as it was rather delicate and brittle. The inner rubber lining peeled right out as well as the spring however the metal ring and rest of the rubber won't budge. Any tips for their removal?

[240Stilo]

Use a screw driver to remove and just be careful. When you put in the new seal look for the side of the seal where the spring is visible and install it with that side facing the inside of the engine. Also, look for something to tap that seal as far in as it can go. I used the side of a little ratchet and a hammer to tap it in there but just use what you can find.

[240 2NR]

Use a screw driver to remove and just be careful. When you put in the new seal look for the side of the seal where the spring is visible and install it with that side facing the inside of the engine. Also, look for something to tap that seal as far in as it can go. I used the side of a little ratchet and a hammer to tap it in there but just use what you can find.


In what way did you use a screwdriver? That's what I've been using and it just won't budge. It's like the edge of the seal has fused to the inside of the casting. As hard as I pull it doesn't seem t make a difference. I've tried cutting around the edge and it still hasn't relieved the seal. :down:

[240Stilo]

Too bad I aint in Denver to try and yank that sucker out for you. All I can say is you might not be using enough force. The seal shouldn't be that hard to take off.

[240 2NR]

Too bad I aint in Denver to try and yank that sucker out for you. All I can say is you might not be using enough force. The seal shouldn't be that hard to take off.


That's what I thought. The softer part of the seal just peeled out, along with that spring, but the metal ring and harder plastic part of the seal just won't budge. I've gotten the screwdriver to the point where I thought it was going snap. I guess I'll continue trying to cut it out. Grrrrrrr.

Hopefully this is not an indication of how hard it's going to be to replace. :bash:

[240 2NR]

Well I went out to give it one final :madfawk: and I finally got it free. Cleaned out the edge, and in a moment of inspiration found a roll of electrical tape to use as a drift to set the new seal. Wow, 5 hours to get the bitch off and 5 minutes to get it back on. Worked perfect, soft enough to protect the seal and the inner diameter fit snugly on the crank so it didn't move around or fall off. I figured if the tape got messed up it was only a 59 cent loss, to my amazement it doesn't even look used ;)

The belts went back on fairly easy, and I was going to wrap it up after I got the fan shoud and electric fan back on until I had fitment issues and finally figured out my lower radiator hose clamp was in the way. So what was going to be 15 minutes was an hour of undoing and redoing work. At least the end is in sight and I should be able to wrap it all up tomorrow night in a couple hours. Then I can rebuild my struts and install my tein camber plates and rear subframe bushings, and get a much needed alignment. Maybe then I'll have some time off to just enjoy DRIVING my car.

[240Stilo]

I hope you used that electrical tape somehow to tap it in as far as it can get. If you only left it so that it was flush to the outside of the engine then you might run into a problem and the seal will rip apart like mine did once.

Clean the engine and keep checking up on it. Good luck.

[240 2NR]

I hope you used that electrical tape somehow to tap it in as far as it can get. If you only left it so that it was flush to the outside of the engine then you might run into a problem and the seal will rip apart like mine did once.

Clean the engine and keep checking up on it. Good luck.

Yeah, I pushed it back as far as I could with my fingers after it was flush from tapping it in with the tape/drift. It looks about as far back from flush as it did before I removed it. Did you grease the back of your crank pulley before re-installing it? If not that chould have been part of the problem. Hopefully it's fine, I have no desire to do this again within the next 70,000 miles.

[uiuc240]

Nice, Steve-o. Glad to hear you got that bish taken care of. Guess what? My S14 seats are in :)

Eric