rear seal questoin

[jokerwild12345]

ive looked through the old post and searched key word rear seal with no luck , i think my rear seal has gone out , how much trouble is it to replace on a 68 with stock engine ? maybe have to pull engine and transmissoin but really dont want to lol , yall have any tips on what to make things alittle easier or if have to pull engine what should i look to replace , its been sitting for years before i gat it , it running good but mayebe little things i dont know about since ive never major work on something this old , any advise would help

[67U20]

Before you get all ramped up for the rear main seal replacement.... Make sure it isn't the oil line /fitting in the back of the head as the oil leaked will run down in a way that makes you believe it's the main seal. Found that to be the issue on mine, got the oil line/fitting squared away an no more evidence of a rear main leak.

[rboltz]

ive looked through the old post and searched key word rear seal with no luck , i think my rear seal has gone out , how much trouble is it to replace on a 68 with stock engine ? maybe have to pull engine and transmissoin but really dont want to lol , yall have any tips on what to make things alittle easier or if have to pull engine what should i look to replace , its been sitting for years before i gat it , it running good but mayebe little things i dont know about since ive never major work on something this old , any advise would help

Replacing the rear main is not difficult, just messy. Drop the pan, remove the two bolts below the bearing and seal and drop/remove that half moon piece. Drive the upper half of the old seal out with a wood dowel if necessary and replace. Place the lower in the piece you dropped. Replace the oil pan piece of seal and the oil pan gasket. Make sure you "offset" the main seal.

Search "rear main" in the advanced search and you will find posts by me and others including pictures.

[jokerwild12345]

i havnt gat a chance to check oil line, i thought i looked at it but need to look again , but was planning to drop the oil pan to clean it out very good , would it be a good idea to rplace rear seal when i do and does what does offset mean ? is it to offset it alittle if the edges pf the cap that bolts on?

[jcemt29108sc]

Just to add to the above advise, you may need to loosen all the main bearing caps just enough to push the top half of the seal out while turning the engine by hand. It can drop down a little just not so much that the main bearings fall out. Then install the new top half the same way. Be sure to properly torque the main bearing bolts in the proper pattern, (usually from the center out) but check your manual. I've never done this on a 230 engine but have done it other engines with success. By offset I think he means that the mating surfaces on the seal should not line up with the oil pan gasket. In other words when you push the top half in leave about a quarter inch out and push the first quarter of the lower seal in the other side. Not that I think it matters but won't hurt.

[jcemt29108sc]

P/S: you may want to lube the seal with a suitable engine rebuild grease or grease that is oil soluble. I have used white lithium grease.

[jokerwild12345]

i hope i can get to it this week , and ill post what ive had to do on there to help other people out

[MrNeutron]

What are you using to replace the seal with? I was trying to find a parts store off the shelf version a while ago but they were all out of stock.