So the front seal on the ol' 4.0 is shot. What's the repair like? All my searches turn up rear main seal stuff. I've got oil spraying all over down there. TIA

 

according to haynes manual, remove the damper, pry old front seal out of timing cover, clean, install new seal, reinstall damper...looks pretty easy. hope this helps

 

That's pretty much all there is to it

 

I had this problem and I replaced that front seal and it turned out to be the timing cover gasket. Make sure that it IS the front seal before you pull it all apart so that if it's not, you don't have to do it twice like I did. Mine turned out to be that over half the timing cover gasket was gone.

 

If it is the seal, make sure there's no groove in the balancer.
I know they make a repair kit for the sb chevy, but don't know
about one for the 4.0. New balancer isn't to much $$$

 

The balancer's 3 years old tops so I'm not too worried about the groove. Thanks for the info guys. I'll see about getting a pic of it on here to see what people think it is.

 

I did one about two weeks ago. Its a easy job but I did the timing cover but pulled the oil pan and put a new gasket. I didn't like the idea of cutting the old gasket and using the one they supplied.