Replacing the clutch today, figured I'd do the rear main seal while i was at it since it was leaking.
I drilled 4 pilot holes around the old seal and drove in screws. Problem is, I was too far outside the seal and really jacked up the outer mating surface!

What can I do here

 

This REALLY bums me out. What a foolish mistake

 

No big deal just pull the rear main seal housing and replace it they are not that expensive. I change them all the time when replacing the seal. Make sure you order a new rear cam seal also and gasket for the rear main seal housing. When pulling the housing take care that you do not tear the oil pan gasket when removing the housing. Use a thin feelers gauge to slide in between the housing and oil pan gasket so you will not tear the gasket when removing housing. Use gray Mopar silicone sealer along bottom of pan when reinstalling. Better the housing was damage then the crankshaft, count your blessings. I always pull the housing since those seals are a real pain to pull using a screw and slide hammer. I'm also afraid of damaging the crankshaft causing a real %$%# that would be problem

 

I was looking inside the new seal and saw half was metal and half was rubber, so I was trying to favor the outside so I could get metal. Obviously, I favored the outside too much

The rear main seal housing is basically the entire rear plate I assume? I saw a number of bolts going up each side.
Will I need to drain the oil for this?
I'll have to dog up an exploded view of this so I can visualize everything before I dig back into it.

I filled the holes with #1 permatex for now to keep the leaking to a minimum. I gotta have the truck since its my only vehicle. I'll order up the parts and rip back into it next weekend I suppose.

Thank you for verifying that would be a fix!

 

view of housing, should only take one hour to pull the adapter from rear of block and replace the housing and seal. Why put everything back together to just remove it all again later? Disconnect battery grounds pull starter with adapter, You don't have to drain oil to replace the seal housing. The second gen trucks were a little easier to remove seal since they were not rubber on the out side surface, but seal would sometimes spin in the housing or blow out of housing from excessive crankcase pressure.

 

Thank you for your help!
When the housing is reinstalled, how does it align? Is it better to install the new main seal before installing and use it (with the plastic alignment ring) to align the whole thing before bolting it up?

 

The rear plate aligns with just the bolts.....no problems there. Have had no troubles there myself. Put it all back together and roll with it. You'll be fine.

Now....if you were working on an old 855 Cummins then you'd have to worry about aligning the bellhousing adapter......you had to use a dial indicator for those to insure the flywheel assembly ran true.

 

wow! i was beginning to think the cummins did not ever leak because mine has never leaked a drop in 270,000 + miles....the only leak i have ever had was the vacuum pump seal early on

 

Quick update, I need to thank both of you for the help! Trucks been up and running strong for over a week and a half! No oil leaks and everything is grand.
I really appreciate the help you provided to get me back in the green again.