6sally6 wrote:

A little off-topic (sorta)..........Butt.......I can clearly remember when my Dad and I worked underneath our cars (regularly!) with just a BUMPER JACK and a brick behind the rear wheel!!
I THINK.....we had the wheels on the car sooooo we woulda just been slightly squashed . I guess that way we would have been invalids for years...instead of killed instantly! gulp!

On that same note......I also wondered how he could work and turn wrenches and have a Lucky Strike about 1/2" long between his lips!!

Were cars greasier back then too??! Seems like we would both be cover from our hands to our armpits with blackass grease. Even if we were just changing oil /or plugs!!

Anyhow.....is your seal a one piece or two piece rope seal....(you never said)....
6sally6

I learned a good lesson many years ago when a good friend was installing a 283 in his 57 Chev and he had a bottle jack under the oil pan. The jack slipped and the engine dropped on his lower chest. His mom heard him cry out and had to use his floor jack to get the engine off him enough to get him free. He spent a couple of weeks in the hospital with internal injuries. I learned then - use the right tool for the job.
 

6sally6 wrote:

Steve69 wrote:

I did mine 2 times with 2 piece seal and it still leaked.  What a PIA.  I have a rack in my 69 and I had to drop it.  Dropped the crank down to get the seal under the crank.  After it leaked I said I would never do it again. If I rebuild or replace the engine that's when it will be fixed....LOL  

Yep!.....can buy A -LOT of oil for the 700-800 dollar repair build that may still leak afterwards.
Jus say'in   
6sal6
 

  Very True!   After the 2nd time it really doesn't leak that bad.   
 

Got the to the seal yesterday.  Definitely needs to be replaced.  Also notice the pilot bearing has a small deformity.  I'm replacing both and adding the repair sleeve.  Also have a dial in kit for the bellhousing and offset pins to get this righted up.  Don't want to miss spring car season.

TimC wrote:

Yuk! and... do yourself a favor and get the Ford Racing/Performance pilot bearing.  Well worth the $20 when you're that deep into it already.

AMEN!  The issue with that bearing is written all over its face...

You can check bellhousing alignment, but its unlikely a factory bellhousing needs offset dowels.  You would know if it was misaligned because if you try to shift into 4th (or whatever gear is direct drive) at high RPM it won't go into gear.  If it did that fine the bellhousing is aligned correctly.  Typically its scattershields that need to be aligned due to manufacturing tolerances. 

MS wrote:

Just sayin'...
I see a whole lot of black nasty stuff up higher than the seal, but I do not see anything leaking from the seal itself.  Are you still sure it is the seal that is leaking?

I have to agree, Steve.  I think I'd clean it up, bolt on the flywheel and run it a bit...maybe spray the block with joch itch...see if I could prove where it's coming from.

MS wrote:

Just sayin'...
I see a whole lot of black nasty stuff up higher than the seal, but I do not see anything leaking from the seal itself.  Are you still sure it is the seal that is leaking?

There's clearly oil seeping from the bottom of the rear main seal exactly where it always does with a rear main seal leak.  If you type in "5.0 rear" into google the autocomplete returns "for 5.0 rear main seal".  The second autocomplete is "5.0 rear main seal leak".  It's that common.  Not only that, judging by the color, I'm pretty sure that's the original rear main seal.  I should have changed it when I did the original T5 swap but the write up I was following didn't include that bit of maintenance.   I should have done a better job with the initial transmission swap 7 years ago but live and learn.

I imagine oil droplets have been getting flung up there for the majority of the cars life.  Since it's evenly distributed and even at the top and gravity only goes in one direction this seems most likely.  I cleaned it all off with engine degreaser.  Lots of dirt and grime but it's not as if the cover plate creates an air tight seal.  On top of that, the transmission was using a spacer plate with the stock bellhousing before I swapped it to a correct size bell housing from a fox body for god knows how long.  

I didn't want to pull the tranny again but it feels good to get all greased up.  Weather has been nice last few days.  Baseball game on the radio, working in my garage, kids playing in the yard... life is good.

Just wanted to close this out.
Cleaned up, new sleeve, new gasket.  Even pulled down the oil pan and redid the gasket and install.

I was getting a several drops a day before.  By the time the weekend rolled around I'd accumulated about a tablespoon of oil garage floor every week.  Been about 3 weeks and I've noticed just the slightest half drop of oil building on the very lowest part of the engine transmission plate.  Garage floor is still bone dry after 3 weeks.  I'm calling it a win at this point.  Truth be told dropping the transmission wasn't even that big of a deal.  Hardest part was pulling the damn pilot bearing.  Tried 3 different puller tools and even the bread pressure method and that thing would budge.  I ended up breaking out an air hammer and just cracking that thing in half to get it out.  Definitely a method of last resort.  Also, WEAR EYE PROTECTION.  I thought I had wiped all the degreaser off from cleaning all that crud off and I was under the car and a drop of that crap landed in my eye.  Burned like the dickens.  Live and learn.

I did replace it with a Ford Racing pilot bearing.  Also used the Fel-Pro Rear main seal, sleeve, and sleeve tool for those wondering.


 

Last edited by TremendousWand (4/11/2021 9:10 AM)

Bullet Bob wrote:

Got a question...Those threads in the crank flange sure do look clean and shinny.  Did you just clean them or is there remains of thread sealer that I can't see?  You do/did use some kind of thread sealer, I hope.

This was after I cleaned everything off.  I had just installed the sleeve and seal.

Now you're going to make me lose sleep at night... 

I followed the instructions... I put the ARP lube under the head of the flywheel bolts and thread sealant on the threads and torqued them to the specified amount.  All new hardware.


 

MS wrote:

Tip for removal of pilot bearing. If you have a welder, weld a 1/2-13 nut to the bearing. A 1/4” long bead on two opposite sides works fine. Let it cool. Thread a 1/2” bolt into the nut and tighten it against the bottom of the hole. The bearing will pop right out.

I have also used the bread trick pounded into the bearing cavity. I use an old T5 input shaft to drive it in there and a five pound sledge hammer to get things moving.

Hmmm, I'll keep that one in the back pocket.  The air hammer worked but there was a lot of anxiety in crowded space.  I nicked the inside of the shaft wall just a tiny bit.  Not enough to effect the press in of the new pilot bearing but either way.  Once I got a good bang into it I ended up just using a hammer and flat head to crack it.
 

Bread!!!!!  Wet news paper!!!!!  WTF????