ROK360
03-09-12, 10:45 PM
Well got myself organized on Friday the 24th of August and attacked the leaking rear main seal in my 84 FSJ Waggie with an AMC 360 V8.
Managed to get access to a hoist to make things easier, so Friday afternoon I dropped the oil and unbuttoned the sump. Let it sit overnight - so less oil to drip in your face.
That was the first good tip I picked up from the web.
Saturday morning a good mate (he is a practical mechanic) met me and we cracked into it. We both had a good feeling and were expecting to knock it over in a couple of hours. That was short lived, as the sump ended up taking us about 90 mins to remove. Due to the flange on the Thorley headers, the baffle plate in the sump was catching on the oil pickup. I was not keen on removing the Lefthand side header, so using a piece of pipe the header was flexed out of the way enough to pull the sump, only needed about 2 mm of movement.
(So note to young players - if you fit Thorley headers, removing the sump is a challenge, never mentioned before in any of the on line write ups.)
We managed to get the upper piece of the seal removed and new one in without undoing the other caps. Second good tip - using a plastic drinking straw cut into a special shape, as a guide for the seal to slide against and not shred itself against the sharp edge of the block. I actually picked this one up from a YouTube clip which featured the changing of a RMS on a 4.0L in a ZJ.
Another tip I recommend following - make sure you have at least two sets of replacement seals, just in case you damage one of the upper seals during insertion ( the first one was a little stubborn and we probably should have squirted some dishwashing liquid up around the crank as the inevitable happened as we took out the straw thinking it was making the seal too tight - bump bow survey says - wrong move.)*
The sump was fitted up with a good bead of blue RTV, I know this is not overly championed but I was not keen on chasing leaks and thought it offered a bit of a guarantee.*
So after buttoning up, oil + filter the engine was fired up for about ten minutes in the workshop - no leaks thus far SWEET! The wagon was left in the workshop overnight and driven home the 20km on the Sunday. Still no sign of a leak.:thumbsup:*
Did have one issue - I ended up with a small exhaust leak at the header (I know you are all saying you should expect that given the fact we leaned on the header to get the sump off.) The Exhaust leak was completely gone by the time the temp had come up on the drive home, *but I was worried that I was going to have to pull the header and replace the gasket. Not an easy task due to the heater box at the back of the head. Anyway I put the question out on another Jeep forum and received a suggestion to re-torque the header bolts. Anyway nipped the bolts up a little and the REMFLEX gasket sealed right up.*
Anyway I can verify the fact that changing the RMS is quite an easy task, but as always there are complications. :rolleyes:
So far after putting about 500 km on the Waggie since Replacing the seal, I am getting more confident that I may end up driving a pretty leak free Jeep for a little while longer.*
The Waggie is all good for the Jambo now, still got a few more things to do b4 then tho.
Managed to get access to a hoist to make things easier, so Friday afternoon I dropped the oil and unbuttoned the sump. Let it sit overnight - so less oil to drip in your face.
That was the first good tip I picked up from the web.
Saturday morning a good mate (he is a practical mechanic) met me and we cracked into it. We both had a good feeling and were expecting to knock it over in a couple of hours. That was short lived, as the sump ended up taking us about 90 mins to remove. Due to the flange on the Thorley headers, the baffle plate in the sump was catching on the oil pickup. I was not keen on removing the Lefthand side header, so using a piece of pipe the header was flexed out of the way enough to pull the sump, only needed about 2 mm of movement.
(So note to young players - if you fit Thorley headers, removing the sump is a challenge, never mentioned before in any of the on line write ups.)
We managed to get the upper piece of the seal removed and new one in without undoing the other caps. Second good tip - using a plastic drinking straw cut into a special shape, as a guide for the seal to slide against and not shred itself against the sharp edge of the block. I actually picked this one up from a YouTube clip which featured the changing of a RMS on a 4.0L in a ZJ.
Another tip I recommend following - make sure you have at least two sets of replacement seals, just in case you damage one of the upper seals during insertion ( the first one was a little stubborn and we probably should have squirted some dishwashing liquid up around the crank as the inevitable happened as we took out the straw thinking it was making the seal too tight - bump bow survey says - wrong move.)*
The sump was fitted up with a good bead of blue RTV, I know this is not overly championed but I was not keen on chasing leaks and thought it offered a bit of a guarantee.*
So after buttoning up, oil + filter the engine was fired up for about ten minutes in the workshop - no leaks thus far SWEET! The wagon was left in the workshop overnight and driven home the 20km on the Sunday. Still no sign of a leak.:thumbsup:*
Did have one issue - I ended up with a small exhaust leak at the header (I know you are all saying you should expect that given the fact we leaned on the header to get the sump off.) The Exhaust leak was completely gone by the time the temp had come up on the drive home, *but I was worried that I was going to have to pull the header and replace the gasket. Not an easy task due to the heater box at the back of the head. Anyway I put the question out on another Jeep forum and received a suggestion to re-torque the header bolts. Anyway nipped the bolts up a little and the REMFLEX gasket sealed right up.*
Anyway I can verify the fact that changing the RMS is quite an easy task, but as always there are complications. :rolleyes:
So far after putting about 500 km on the Waggie since Replacing the seal, I am getting more confident that I may end up driving a pretty leak free Jeep for a little while longer.*
The Waggie is all good for the Jambo now, still got a few more things to do b4 then tho.