front main seal removal

mrbrasky

mrbrasky

Registered User
Any suggestions on how to remove the front main seal? In the middle of replacing harmonic balancer and decided to replace the seal while I was at it. Ford service manual says simple to use a screw driver. It's not intuitively obvious to me how.
 
I put a flat head against the lip of the seal and hit it with a hammer to bend the seal, then I had to take vice grips and rip on the seal to get it out. It was a major pain in the you know what. I only took it off to get more room to try to get my broken balancer off. Then to put the new seal in was also a pain as I could only tap it a little and then once one side was in the other would pop out. I cussed at the car and drank a lot of beer that night. Then I had to hone the balancer to make it fit, damn BHJ....

Good luck. :D
 
I did the same as scott just put a lil and I do mean a lil rtv around the outside metal part of the seal get a large deep socket that is the same diameter and tap it in gently if that doesnt work beat the hell out of it til it falls in .......no just kiddin:rolleyes:
 
How many hours am I lookin at to change the front seal with the engine in the car? Can I just re-use my factory balancer?
 
as many here will attest, reinstalling your OEM HB is not advisable. This will lead to early failure due to distortion of the soft aluminum hub. Unless the seal is leaking severly, I advise not replacing the front main seal. Replace it if/when the HB fails.
 
Mine is leaking badly and I'm not so sure I want to mess with a BHJ since I don't know anything about HBs and I especially don't know anything about hohning them to fit properly.
 
Almost every car will not need the balancer honed. It's just that the factory crank snout is variable over time, so it was easier to make them a tad tighter and have a final finish, then run into some that are too big.

How I installed my bhj was first measure it and the snout to verify the proper fit. Then stick it in the oven for 30 minutes at 250 degrees. Then apply the sealer to the keyway, and slip the balancer on as far is it will go by hand, lining up the key way. Then use a tool to push it on the rest of the way.
 
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