This is the ring your talking about right?

 

yeppers, that's the one. mustve been all stuck on with gunk and whatever other crap was caked on there, cause it took a while to fall off.

 

evenly distributes the pressure over the arch of the pan where the lower part of the 2 piece main seal and the oil pan gasket sits, needed due to lack of bolts to distribute pressure. put a couple gobs of black rtv on the corners of the gasket where the pan starts to round. helps the gasket seat and seals the corners, where its prone to leak.

 

okay, so, I got the pan off, spent half my life scraping old gasket off the sealing surface, and pulled the main bearing cap off. Now.... I CAN'T GET THE SEAL OUT! I'm having nothing but problems with this. Any tricks?

 

Being extremely carefull!!! To remove the upper seal, you need something with a small point...a tiny phillips head or a small punch..place the tip of whatever you use on the upper seal....if you poke it you'll feel the metal reinforcement inside of the seal...tap staight up on it with a small hammer until the opposite side of the seal is visible...use a pair of needle nose pliers to remove it the rest of the way....the lower seal can be pried out with your punch or tiny phillips head. Good luck!!! I just finished mine this evening!!

 

mine must've been a little more stuck in than yours. careful didn't work. finally had to use a smaller size torx driver bit adapted up to a 1/2 inch driver with a 14" extension. Pounded on that thing a couple times with a 5lb mini sledge I use for busting rock. took 3 hits and then freed up. After that it slid right out. New one went in without a hitch, and I don't believe I damaged the crank at all (keeping my fingers crossed there but I saw no evidence of scratching). Got everything put back together yesterday and I'll fill it with oil today. Wanted to let the RTV set overnight. Don't know if that's necessary but it can't hurt.
Going to bolt the suspension stuff back up in a little bit, then it's off to fixing my faulty leaf spring so I can drive it.

Thank you everyone who gave me some input on this! I don't think I would have known where to start without you. Have a few other projects getting ready soon and now I know where to find some answers. You people are awesome.

 

Got her all put back together. Threw in some oil and ran around for a while. Came back and there wasn't a drop leaking out. Yay for me! Thanks again.