Tate

Look for a place to grind it. Taking .001-.003" with emory paper will mean you will be there all week, and thats even less likely of having a flat smooth surface afterwards.

Pull the shifter tower off the top of the tranny. Frankly, I never knew that trannies would come out with it still installed, I've always removed them from the very beginning.

Personally, if your rear main is dry, I'd leave it. I know some guys who pulled out a good one and replaced it and screwed it up and now its leaking. I did that myself on my dually years ago. Still leaking. The seals can be finicky, and thats a bad place to have to go back in and fix it. If its already leaking, by all means replace it, its not gonna get much worse.

ted_pulliam

Tate, I will pull the flywheel and check the seal. As you said, if it is dry I won't mess with it, and will just worry about the flywheel.

Thanks again for the help you and the others have been - Ted

ted_pulliam

Allright, I popped the flywheel off last night (that was not fun). I wish I had a camera to snap a picture of the rear main seal to post here. I definitely don't want to mess with it if it is still serviceable, but I can't tell.

What I saw was that the bottom-most radius of the seal had a slight but noticeable film of oil/grit on it, while the top and sides were clean. Is this normal, or does it indicate the seal should be replaced. The scene was far from the wet oily mess I would imagine would be there if the seal had already failed.

I know it is cheap insurance to just replace the seal, but again, like Tate said, if it ain't broke...

BTW, can I get the seal at NAPA/Auto Zone/Advance, or is it a Cummins only part? If it sounds like based on my description the rear main seal does need replaced, and if it is a Cummins only part, does anyone have the part #?

Thanks