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crankshaft oil seal, clutch end


browny

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hi guys, newbie here. as above i have replaced the crankshaft oil seal on my 1979 esprit, non turbo and it still leaks. i am new to the esprit and i keep hearing something about oval crankshafts been the problem here, i thought that would make the engine sound like a bag of hammers? anyone experienced this and solved it effectively?

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You need to be carefull when inserting the rear main seal. There's actually a centering tool that is required to get the seal on so that it won't leak later. Probaly what happend.

Travis

Vulcan Grey 89SE

 

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You might want to try in the Giugiaro Forum for the earlier cars, for other opinions, but i had a similar situation w/ my 85 turbo. Unfortunately, I lived w/ the leak a long time because I didn't want to split the eng. & trans. In retrospect, I would have done it immediately and saved a great deal of anguish. The problem was that I inserted the seal too far in the housing and the lip that rides on the crank pushed up against the 'oil splash shield' and created a small gap @ each edge of one of the 'fingers' of the shield. I recently performed a full rebuild myself, and installed the new seal paying VERY close attention to the spec in the factory manual. I did this w/o the aid of a special tool. As I recall I used my thumbs and a soft, wide faced hammer and merely kept an eye on the distance. I've used the same method sucessfully on many other, similar seals w/ good result. I don't know where you would even find the factory style tool. I hope this may clarify ONE but very likely possibility. If you need the seal distance spec, I have it for the 85 turbo. The setup is probably the same. Let me know, best of luck. Cheers, Lee

BTW: When I built my engine recently, I completely installed the main bearing panel, then realized that I left out the 'oil splash shield' I spoke of earlier. This caused me a great deal of distress until I found out that it was simply deleted in later engines. I left mine out and am happy to report that there is no leak from the crank seal for any reason. Keep this in mind if you ever decide to change the crank main bearings!!!

ALSO: Since only the edge of the rubber seal lip rides on that one crank journal there is no reason that it could be worn 'oval'. As for the 'bag of hammers', only the bearing journals, typically only rod bearing journals are subjected to enough force to wear them SLIGHTLY oval. when I tore my engine down after approx. 60,000 mi., all it needed was a polish, which enabled new bearings to be fitted in the standard (original factory) size. There was no ovality in any journal. Hope this puts some of your fears to rest.

Edited by Esprit Aviation
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