remove the cross member, drop the pan and remove the rear main cap. use a hipo 289/302 "red" seal. Sorry don't have part #. it's heavier than the stock seal. Push out the old seal, turning the crank helps. Use an old feeler gauge bent into a V to help feed the new seal into the groove, so the block doesn't catch the edge and cut the seal up. Make sure you have the seal facing the correct direction. Dab gasket sealer on the ends and drop in the cap with it's seal and torgue to specs. You should be in and out in an afternoon.

 

As far as dropping the pan, I wasn't able to get the pan off without dropping one of the ball joints off of the idler arm of the steering. Is it because of the slightly longer stroke of the 302? or did I do something else wrong to where the pan won't drop with just removing the cross member?

When I went to Oreilly's the only two piece gasket they had for my engine was this one and I won't get it till the morning because they have to get it from Phoenix http://www.oreillyauto.com/site/c/de...2303&ppt=C0026
I am not too happy with the price and I suppose if I would have shopped around some at autozone and nappa I could have found the part you were talking about but I figured Fel-Pro is trustworthy enough... and for that cost it better last longer than any other gasket or seal on the car.

I have the old seal out, its in decent condition but had popped out of place and spun about one inch on the crank. Don't know why it did that. Any ideas?
The tab's that were on the seal were facing toward the front of the engine, not sure which way they are supposed to be facing?

Thanks for the help so far.

 

It spun? Odd. Must not fit tightly in the bore. Glazier/Nolan lists the neoprene seal for $24, so the one you're looking at is pricey.

 

Great... first I screw up when I installed it the first time, and now I got screwed because I didn't take the time to research prices.

 

Weird. I bet the person you talked to just doesn't know how to look up parts right. Far as I know, just about every O'Reilly's store should have a 289/302 2-piece rear main in stock. The one you have is the Fel Pro Performance version, not the standard replacement. It's not a standard neoprene unit, but rather a premium synthetic compound. Does it work better? *shrug* My standard fel-pro neoprene seal works just fine for me.

I was taught to offset the seals 1/2" or so to keep the seams from being in the same place as the cap/block mating surfaces. Reduces the chance of leaks.

 

You do not need to drop the crank any to get the top half of the seal out. There's enough room for it to slide out with little effort. Use a small screwdriver and carefully push one end of the seal up. When enough protrudes out the other side, grab it with a pair of pliers, and gently rotate it out of there. Be carefull not to nick the crank.

Use a small amount of motor oil to lube up the new seal. Push it all the way around until it sticks out the other side by 1/4-1/2". Before pushing it all the way through, clean off the end you're pushing on, so the dab of silicone will stick to the end.

Once you're in there, you'll see how easy it is.

If there's a groove in the crank where the seal rides, you'll have a tough time getting anything to seal there. You'll need a repair sleeve. And that requires engine or trans removal.

 

Well the new rear main seal is in and for the time being its working, thanks guys... One last question, the metal plate between the engine and transmission, is that plate supposed to hold the seal from popping out of place in the block and main cap? I remember when we were installing the engine we had everything started and the engine mated to the trany and noticed it wasn't in place so we cut from the sides of the hole for the crank down so we could just slide it into place, Is that my problem?

Thanks again for all the help.

 

Now I'm confused. The rear engine cover has nothing to do with the rear seal. The plate goes on just before the flywheel. The bellhousing then holds it in place. Nothing holds the center of the plate, and the center of the plate holds nothing, especially not the main seal.

You can see the seal groove here:

 

Your confused, well me too. I took it for a drive and its still leaking as it was before. So either it was not the rear main seal to start with or there is another problem with the crank/seal area that I missed. As far as the picture goes, the block looks like that but the cap has no lip to hold the seal from sliding back toward the transmission It looked more like http://www.concentricsoft.com/Person...Rebuild082.jpg
I about went through the roof when it started leaking again. I am still a little agitated about it, but ill cool down by tomorrow. I will try to get it back apart tomorrow and snap a few pictures to upload for you guys.

 

Um, that style block and cap is designed for a later model one-piece rear main, not an older two-piece style. Either you have a late model block, or you block was machined for a one-piece rear main. Upside is that you don't need to remove the oil pan or rear main cap to install it. Downside is that you may need to in order to get the old seal out before you install the proper seal.

You're looking for Fel Pro part # BS40620 (rubber) or BS40644 (teflon-impregnated rubber). At least one of those options should be available at just about any parts store.