Ric1

OK time
to change the rear seal, 2 days to get the oil pan of and then it took my son (who is a weight lifter) and I with a breaker bar (2 ft.) to get those bolts undone, well we got the cap ( I don't think those bolts were torked to specs) off and surprisingly the bearing was in good condition but the seal was another matter, I had to take one of my small screw drivers and beat the medal part of the seal out (the rubber part fell out when I took the oil pan off) I'v taken a drift punch to the upper seal and it's like hitting iron, any suggestions for getting the top one out would greatly be appreciated if not it looks like I'm going to half to overhaul the dang thing for a 10 minute job. Very frustrating now, it's starting to rain in the beautiful sunshine state of WA.

wingless

My experience is that loosening the other main bearing caps during the main seal replacement permits the crankshaft to be a more loose fit, making removal / replacement of the top half of the seal MUCH easier.

Then, everything is torqued back to the FSM specification.

samiam

I had to loosen all the caps and it still would not come out. After trying everything that I could think of and research about, I took the new seal and started pressing it in and the old one finally came out. Had to buy another new seal but that was a small price to pay to get that stubborn old seal out. I love to watch all the videos of how easy they make it look. Good luck!

5-Speed

I have neven loosened the other main caps. The one in my xj was a pain. I used a punch and hammer. Anger helped get it out. I did one on a buddies xj not too long ago and it slid right out. When putting the new seal in, be sure to use that little paper thing in the bag.

J936591

Ok so about a month ago I replaced my rear main seal also and the pan gasket. But now the pan leaks and I don't know if I got the pan bolts to tight enough, or I messed up the pan and now it's bent... some help would be awesome... I did not use a torque wrench I just tightened them until my convert zone if you will... any suggestion thanks

J936591

I had to loosen the whole crank and then mine came right out easy