Some of you may know about the dilemma of my rear main seal.  Just look at the pictures of it below (few posts down).  It was nasty!  The outside was sprayed with orange sealant; and when I removed it last week with the carrier, the inside was filled with grease.  Grease?  Some fellow s14’ers said to leave it alone, others to change it.  The RMS is a recurring issue for many; and if not changed correctly, a persistent leak occurs.  

I chose to replace it-along with everything else.  I bought a new RMS carrier, bolts,  and dowels.  Throwing the baby out with the bath water!  I basically got all the new parts listed here (except for the paper gasket, I used a hi temp gastket maker instead).

Ok, here’s what it looked like before I started.

 

The new parts (excluding bolts and dowels):

 

To press in the seal, I used two pieces of plywood and a rubber mallet.  This method got it perfectly flush with the new carrier.  Since this is a replacement seal, it must be pressed in an additional 1-2mm in order to sit on “fresh” steel.  I used a metal ring to tap the seal 1mm from the carrier edge.

 

 

Now, the next issue was removing my pilot bearing.  It was kind of frozen.  A shot of PB Blaster didn’t work too well.  The good ole’ toilet paper method was needed.  First, get a wad of TP; second, wet  and roll pieces small enought to get into the bearing hole; third, repeat #2 until the cavity is full; fourth, get something that will will fit nice and snug into the bearing hole (for me, a 3/8″ 4″ extension worked nicely) and give it some moderately sharp blows; fifth, remove tool, repack, repeat #4; sixth, eventually the bearing will slide out due to the displacement of the tool in the bearing cavity.

 

Finally, I can replace my newly lightened and resurfaced flywheel.  I used blue locker/sealant and also a dab of silicone gasket maker to minimize the possibility of oil leaking through the bolts.

 

Phew, that’s over!  Now time to install the clutch and tranny.  🙂

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 1st, 2009 at 12:42 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.