Date: Sat, 19 Jan 2008 06:44:30 -0500
Reply-To: "Jack R." <jack007@COMCAST.NET>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: "Jack R." <jack007@COMCAST.NET>
Subject: Re: Front and rear seal replacement
In-Reply-To: <47919484.1060200@charter.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"
John,
I feel your pain!!! My 84 Westy, with a manual and 2.1L replacement motor
had the rear main seal fail last summer following my body restoration. The
cause was determined to be blast material finding its way into the bell
housing! See photo link.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/77623993@N00/1262992204/
The hole at the top of the motor where you can see the back of the fly
wheel, is for automatic transmission application, my plug was missing, and I
failed to cover it properly when I had the body sand blasted. I would
suggest keeping it plugged to avoid any contamination over the 75,000 miles
of driving on the road. It is amazing how much crud can find its way to
your seal. My mechanic would not have believed this if he hadn't seen this
with his own eyes.
This happened just before the Woodward Dream Cruise, but I drove it there
anyway, and let it leak.
I saw from an earlier post that your van has a manual tranny too. So, it is
a good plan to change your clutch at the same time, as you will find your
clutch saturated with oil, and likely find that your pressure plate and
flywheel have heat marks - so everything should be resurfaced while you are
at it. Here is a great link to the step by step procedures.
http://volksweb.relitech.com/clutch.htm
I had my mechanic friend come by on a Saturday, and if it wasn't for be
getting the wrong size flywheel seal (yes they come in 2 sized 12mm for
automatic and 10mm for manual) BE SURE TO COUNTERSINK, we would have had the
job done in a snap. Also, the time to take to clutch, flywheel and pressure
plate to a local clutch resurface place. One other note: the throw out
bearing slipped on us, and I crushed it when we reassembled the thing. We
knew we had a problem when the fly wheel wouldn't turn by hand after
reassembly. After getting the replacement bearing we held it in place with
a dab of Vaseline and it was fine.
We also changed the seal in the tranny - took an extra $6 and 15 minutes.
Changed the tranny fluid with Red-line MT GL-4.
Put the whole thing back together, and it is as dry as a bone now.
Good luck on your project, if you do everything right,
Boston Bob has a great video to show the replacement procedures as well.
Keep that whole plugged, even use silicon sealant around the bell housing
(Like OEM for Syncro's), to keep the dust, dirt, crud out of there, and you
should be set for life!
Jack R.
84 Westy Wolfy, with a 2.1L Syncro Motor.
N. of Detroit.
-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of
John Rodgers
Sent: Saturday, January 19, 2008 1:11 AM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Front and rear seal replacement
Gotta replace the front and rear seals on my 2.1 Wasserleaker. I'm not a
happy camper - 85,000 since rebuild.
Anybody got any tips and tricks?
No Vanagon mechanics in this neck of the woods, so I'm gonna have to
find a mechanic that doesn't mind somebody hanging in the shop and
kibbitzing a bit while the work is going on. I figure a GOOD mechanic -
even though not a VW mechanic, can get the job done with my supervision
(yeah, right!). I take this approach because of some bad mistakes in the
past.
BTW, it is ironic that Frank Grunthaner just put up a recent post and
mentioned the frequency of his observation of front and rear seal
failure in the 2.1L WBX engine. He attributed this to owner/operator
error, as well as poor maintenance. Oil levels being a culprit. I am
very judicious in the operation of my van, and I'm meticulous about the
maintenance and keeping things up. I just think the seals should have
lasted longer. However, when the engine ws rebuilt, two weeks after I
got it back, I had to replace that flywheel seal. Obviously the tranny
has to be pulled to replace that little seal. What a PITA for so small a
thing.
Thanks,
John Rodgers
88 G Driver
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