After a lot of frustration, I've been able to remove my rear main seal. I drilled a total of 8 holes on the edge of the seal and attempted to pull it out with screws (4 x 1/16" pilot holes, #10 screw; 4 x 1/8" pilot holes, #10 screw). On each of the eight, the screw pulled out and trashed the area around the hole. I tried curved needlenose and visegrips. I even tried welding a 3/16" hex key to the slide hammer, then using the key as a hook through each of the eight holes - just ended up swiss cheesing the seal even more and bending the hex key. Eventually it came out after forming a rolled lip on the seal at the retainer edge, then leveraging it out with a block of wood and a huge flat screwdriver. Looking around the retainer edge, I found spots where torn black seal material remains, as though it had been glued in place at the factory (I've never had the seal done in this truck - thought only the metal edged seals received Loctite?). Upon inspection of the crank flange, predictably, I found three faint scratches - not deep at all but I can feel them. I'm sure I didn't hit the crank with any tools - the scratches probably came from contact with the progressively shredded edge of the seal ring. For the retainer I'll take off the remaining seal material with 320 or crocus, then put in some permatex to fill, but the crank scratches have me worried. The FSM says that the new seal can be driven 1/8" deeper than normal in the event of a deep wear groove. I have no perceptible wear groove, but the scratches would almost be cleared if I use this method. My questions are:

1) Has anyone here ever attempted to drive the seal deeper than the setting tool will allow? If so, what did you use as the additional spacer?

2) If driving the seal deeper is going down the wrong road, can I smooth the scratches out on the crank and call it good, or do I have to get the seal kit with the incorporated sleeve?

3) How does the sleeve work? I was just at Rocky Mountain Cummins looking at it, and the sleeve is bonded to the inside edge of the seal ring. The instructions say not to separate the two, but I don't see how it could possibly address the issue of scratches on a crank or a wear groove. To me it just looks like I would have metal (inside edge of seal ring) spinning on metal (crank).


Thanks for reading, hopefully someone will have some suggestions.

 

The sleeve is a press fit onto the crank, and that is the new wear surface. When we did this to a friends truck, we removed the seal housing from the block, and installed the seal (with sleeve) into the housing. Then we tapped the sleeve onto the crank far enough that we could put the flywheel on with some long bolts to press it on. Ended up needing bolts for a manual flywheel and an auto flexplate to get it on all the way square.

 

tates got it. its called a speedi-sleeve. the metal is a new wear surface for the new seal. the new seal is bigger ID than standard size to make up for the new wear surface diameter. if your crank is grooved that you can feel with your finger nail, you have to speedi-sleeve it.

 

Are there different ID sleeves to accommodate different amounts of crank wear or is it one size fits all?