• Hi Guest!
    If you appreciate British Car Forum and our 25 years of supporting British car enthusiasts with technical and anicdotal information, collected from our thousands of great members, please support us with a low-cost subscription. You can become a supporting member for less than the dues of most car clubs.

    There are some perks with a member upgrade!
    **Upgrade Now**
    (PS: Subscribers don't see this gawd-aweful banner
Tips
Tips

Conversion oil seal

bob hughes

Luke Skywalker
Country flag
Offline
Hi chaps

Just read the instructions on the new rear crankshaft oil seal the I have just got and it puts the two horizontal botls on each side bang on the joint between the engine block and the rear crankshaft bearing block, also if I cut away the gasket ti clear the new oil seal housing there will be nothing left at the bottom. Is this correct, there can be no other interpretation of the notes

Regards

Bob
 
Hi Bob, I do no know what seal you have. However, those I am familiar with do not put the attachment bolts on the rear main bearing to block joint. OTOH, when the back plate is opened up to accommodate the seal the joint gets very narrow at the bottom. Regards---Keoke
 
Your dead right Koeke, read the darned instructions incorrectly. I had a pre-conceived idea that the diagonal of the bolts would be vertical and horizontal and read the instructions to my idea ie. two bolts to be parallel to the flange of the sump, this put the two diagonally oposed bolts on the joint line. Whilst talking to the supplier this morning the penny dropped I have to rotate the crank a further 45 degrees to get a pair of bolts into the block and the other pair into the bottom main bearing cap, ie. the joint in the conversion system is horizontal. Good job I did not drill anything. This is a case when a sketch on the instructions would have been better than a thousand words.
 
Bob Hughes said:
Your dead right Koeke, read the darned instructions incorrectly. I had a pre-conceived idea that the diagonal of the bolts would be vertical and horizontal and read the instructions to my idea ie. two bolts to be parallel to the flange of the sump, this put the two diagonally oposed bolts on the joint line. Whilst talking to the supplier this morning the penny dropped I have to rotate the crank a further 45 degrees to get a pair of bolts into the block and the other pair into the bottom main bearing cap, ie. the joint in the conversion system is horizontal. Good job I did not drill anything. This is a case when a sketch on the instructions would have been better than a thousand words.
Hi Bob,
This installation requires great precision. The new holes must be perfectly located, drilled & tapped, square to the block. At the same time, the seal holder must be perfectly concentric with the crank shaft. Take time to make sure that the new bolt pattern is aligned & square to the block/bearing cap before drilling the first hole.

After the crank is aligned for drilling the holes, make very sure that the crank does not move during the drilling/tapping process. Verify that the holes are drilled & tapped deep enough that the screws do not bottom out before they pull the seal holder down tightly to the block. On my installation, the suggested 10MM depth was not quite deep enough.

Getting the spring into the split seal, the seal into the seal holder, & the back of the holder sealed to the block can be a real project. I suggest several trial fits along the way before final assembly.

At least you won't need to mill the original built in lower seal housing from the bearing cap as was necessary with my BN2. To make matters worse, my DWR seal used metric fasteners.
D
 
All of what you read above is good and correct. I was very careful to drill the block and cap exactly 10mm deep. The supplied bolts bottomed out just like Dave warned. I put form-a-gasket on the surface mating to the block and never got the gasket goop to squeeze out of the joint. Thought I was in trouble as I did not trust a deeper drilling keeping the threads in tack. I carefully milled down the supplied bolts until each of the bolts pulled down and I saw the goop squeeze out. I also suggest the use of a bottom tap, which will cut the threads deeper into the drilled hole. Tricky project but you will like the outcome if you were leaking as much as I was.
 
Guys

The deed is done, had no problem with the tapped holes, used all three taps everything seemed to be OK. then I hit the wall, getting the spring into the seal, I spent ages trying to no avail. then I hit upon a plan, they do say that neccessity is the mother of invention:- I made up a tool from a nail hammered flat at one end and bent thro 90- degrees for the last 4mm, that was mark 1, mark 2 quickly followed - a piece of metal coat hanger with a twirl at one end for a handle and a very slight U shape at the business end, having first flattened it and removed any burrs with a file, more heart brake until the moment of dawning. Dipping the tool into the rubber grease for lub, working from under the car and with the split in the seal at the bottom, I fed the spring into one side of the split using the tool and with the other hand slowly rotated the seal, keeping the spring into the seal with the tool and you feed it into the seal - literally seconds later the job was done, take care when removing the tool - hence the slight U, 1mm or so for the other leg as it were,just enough to keep a hold on the spring and prevent it slipping off the end but not too much that you can not unhook it at the end.
 
Congrats!! I did not have the trouble you described but I was sweating the spring install. Mine went in with out trouble however I expect a major overhaul in the not to distant so I have book marked your trick. If you ever loose the three balls, springs and two plungers between 3rd & 4th I too have a trick. Keoke bailed me out with the wire trick re-attaching the OD to the gearbox (that was a beauty).
 
Back
Top