Re: Rear Main Seal

Posted by Owen_Dyneto On 2020/1/31 15:16:13

You do not need to remove the clutch, you should remove the transmission. Remove the rear main bearing cap and fit the new graphited rope seal and form to shape with a suitable mandrel and trim as needed. Loosen all the remaining main bearing caps slightly but equally; remove the old upper part of the seal by some combination of pushing and pulling and use a "sneaky Pete" to draw the upper half of the new seal into place and trim. A small blob of gasket shellac at the juncture of the upper and lower seal ends is a good practice. Retighten and torque the bearing caps, install the wooden side seals in the rear bearing block.

Properly installed, these rope seals are quite effective and long-lasting, typically lasting the life of the motor. In addition to the Packard manuals, manuals like Motor's, Glenn's, and Chilton's all gave instructions on seal replacement, a common job at the time though not one I ever looked forward to. The Sneaky Pete (a/k/a Chinese Torture Toy) is in my experience pretty much essential to the job. It was typically sold as a rear main bearing oil seal installing tool.

You might pick up the phone and talk to Ross Miller, I suspect he's done this dozens of times and may have some tricks to simplify the job.