Has anybody had any experience of substituting a double lipped oil seal for the single lipped seal UKC 3344 described rather quaintly in my parts book as a “seal, fan bearing housing, engine” the front crankshaft seal.
20151017-5507Pw Double & Single lip front crankshaft oil seal.jpg (190.19 KiB) Viewed 782 times
The photo (unfortunately not up to the superb photography standard of James467) shows a new double lipped seal which I have purchased locally on the left and an old, (reject) single lipped standard seal on the right.
It is my intention to drop the engine and sub frame assembly out of my car and in doing so sacrificing both the existing coolant and brake fluid so that I can attempt to remove the existing oil seal by removing the bolt 156499 which holds the front pulley on and then removing the front pulley. I suspect, and I hope, it will be relatively easy to work the existing seal out of the timing cover and replace it, without disturbing the timing cover itself.
I would take out the rad first and see if the bolt comes undone before dropping the motor etc. if youre careful the seal should be able to be prised out . If you can drill a couple of small holes into the seal and screw a couple of self tappers into it you can lever against these to pop it out.
Thanks Tony for the tip about drilling a couple of holes and using a couple of small screws with which to pull the seal out.
It is precisely the method I was proposing to use. But of course you have to remove the front pulley first and then it would require a pretty steady hand to drill the holes in what is going to be a very confined space. Once the pulley is removed there is quite a substantial gap between the seal itself and the crankshaft. I have a son who is a mechanic and who is doing this sort of job on a regular basis. Indeed it was he who popped my car up on a hoist and spotted the leak and made some rather unflattering comment about my "British" car. He is a bit big now but in the past I might have given him a smack behind the ear for being so impertinent.
I have taken the engine and sub frame out so many times now that I find I can do it in about 40 minutes. The radiator is not even moved, remains in position as the body is raised off the sub frame.
I might in fact be able to drop the sub frame a couple of inches in order that I can see the front pulley under the front valance. But if I am going to do that I might as well drop the sub frame right out, give the engine a good clean and fix a couple of other little problems as well.
I am interested though to hear any comment, positive or negative, about substituting a double lip seal for what was used originally.
Its only a bit of rubber coated tin. Self tappers work and you can yank it out with pliers. Use the starter to undo the crank pulley.
Better seal design can only be a good thing....
i reckon they only leak because they burn before lubrication gets to them on first start. I always put a bit of lube on the crank pulley when I do timing chains.
Jonners
Note from Admin: sadly Jon passed away in February 2018 but his humour and wealth of knowledge will be fondly remembered by all. RIP Jonners.
I took the bull by the horns, so as to speak and dropped the engine and gearbox assembly out sitting on its sub frame as I have done numerous times before and replaced the front seal with the double lipped seal as shown in the above photo. And, acting on the advice given by Jonners, packed a little grease in between the two lips of the seal as well as ran a smear of grease around the running surface of the crankshaft pulley on which the seal runs.
The original seal, and I suspect it was the original factory fitted seal, had worn so much that it had created a nicely polished surface, nearly as wide as the seal itself. So there was no need to polish the running surface on which the two lips of new seal now run.
The old seal just popped out when I put the blade of a screw driver under it and levered it back over the nose of the crankshaft. No drama at all in extracting it for once the crankshaft pulley is removed there is ample room to grab the edge of the seal with the screw driver blade.
Unfortunately as the old seal failed it allowed oil to come out onto the back face of the crankshaft pulley and it was then spun off the pulley and the air passing through the radiator and fan then coated the entire engine assembly with a fine oily mist, The engine now does not look like the near spotless engine it once was. If only I had an old fashioned steam cleaner I would give it a quick blast and restore it the shiny state it was originally.
The new twin lipped seal seems to be working perfectly satisfactorily. Sadly I will not be around in 40 years from now to report whether it performs any better than the seal fitted originally.
Nice one Robert...I should have added that I'm far too much of a tight wad to loose all my brake fluid - especially the silicon
dot5 stuff I use. The antifreeze gets caught in a washing up bowl when the wife is out and re-used after filtering...
Jonners
Note from Admin: sadly Jon passed away in February 2018 but his humour and wealth of knowledge will be fondly remembered by all. RIP Jonners.
