Re: 1954 ultra selector shaft seal

Posted by Gary On 2012/7/9 5:39:13

Erik,
I just replaced the one in my '53 Clipper around the first of the year. The frame in your '54 may have about a 3/8" hole through it that alomost lines up directly with the selector shaft. After you remove the selector shaft lever, you can take a long sharp pointed punch and using the hole to access the seal, make a small hole in the face of the seal to insert a sheet metal screw. Make sure you center the hole in the face or you might scar the shaft if the screw threads contact the shaft itself. it's tight working quarters but you can use the same hole that you used for the punch for a screwdriver to install the screw. You dont need to screw it in too deep, the seal is only about a 1/4" deep and you dont want to bottom it out in the transmission case. After you get the screw in, use something like some needle nose vice grips to clamp on the screw, then wedge something like a thin piece of cardboard or wood shim under the vice grips and pry the seal out. The old seal comes out easy enough however to install the new seal is a bit more tricky as you will need to fabricate a tool that will fit over the selector shaft and contact the face of the new seal, then you will need to use something like a flat bar with a bend in it to pry against the frame of the car to "press" the new seal back in. you may need to cut a small block of wood or two to insert btween the frame and the bar to pry against. Any questions just ask, it's not a bad job to do, just a very confined space to work in, requires patience and a little fabricating ingenuity...just be safe and make sure to use jack stands and wheel chocks.