I was examining my engine yesterday to see if I missed any mud, and as I was looking, i seen what looked like oil leaking at bottom of engine right below crankshaft pulley.



the sway bar is in the way, but this is right above front suspension and right below crank on front of motor.

I know for sure its not the oil pan, it is clearly leaking from behind the crank pulley. It wasnt there 2,800 miles ago when I changed oil. Im not sure if the mud puddle I went through at the beach cause this. After discussing this with STL, sand may have gotten in there and tore the seal, but we are not sure. What we are sure about is that it is for sure leaking and i for sure is going to get fixed!

So now this leads to me asking...How in the hell do you replace the seal? I have a Haynes Manual, I'm not sure if it tells how. I know I am going to have to remove the cooling fan and schroud to make room. even so, its going to be a ***** to get to. from the bottom, the trans cooler hard lines are an obstacle.

So what do i do, just pull off the drive belt, remove above items, then remove pullet and harmonical balancer? how do i get to the seal and how does it come out? someone please help!!!

 

that is the front main seal.. you have to have a harmonic balance puller to take that off then just pry out the seal and drive in the new one. you should be able to work around the fan and stuff but i dont know i can on my truck but ive got more engine room than em new motors.

 

Brandon, when you say front main seal, is that the same thing as the crankshaft seal?

 

i hope this is easy

 

I would call it the front crankshaft seal. The seal should be in the front timing cover itself as thats how 99.99999% of all engines are. You'll have to remove the balancer and hub to replace it. Then you have to remove the old seal. Some people just cut them out with chisels and pry them out, or drill holes in them with sheet metal screws and use them to pry off of, or lastly just get a seal puller (its shaped like a claw hammer and works similar to it, but they can be difficult to use with the crank still in the way.)
Then you have to drive the seal back in, and depending upon the amount the crankshaft sticks out you can just use a large socket placed over the crank to drive the seal in evenly.

Make sure before you put your hub back in that you check it for grooves. If the hub has damage to the sealing surface then you need to get a "speedy sleeve". Its more or less a little metal sleeve that drives over the hub's damaged sealing surface, thus giving you a clean smooth sealing surface again. You can get "speedy sleeves" at your local parts house. If you need one make sure you put some sort of sealant on the inside of it before you drive it on, that way you wont be getting any oil migrating out of the sleeve.

 

thanks! will check! i freaking hate engine work

 

This guy stated this on another forum, man this better not be the case...:( i really hope not!!

 

No more warranty?

 

nope. Im at 64k miles, warranty ran out at 60k (exteneded warranty). dont know if they they would fix it since its so close. doubt it

 

Hey I still gotta pull that PDF for you, I had to run out to the AT&T store so I couldn't' do it right then.

 

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2383984/Cran...ont%20Seal.pdf

 

Thanks Trent, seems not to bad, i need those specialty tools though. I guess i can rent them

 

when i swapped mine, it didn't take anything special except the pulley puller.

I did make one major screw up. The pulley and shaft are grooved for a bar stock that slides in the grrove on the crank shaft (can't think of the official name). Anyway, I dropped that bar stock into the opening in the timing cover. What a pain that was.

 

I've always heard it called a "Key".

 

thanks. key stock it is.

 

Yeah that's whay I ment. You can change that seal with the timeing cover on you don't have to take it off

 

Wayne, So all I really have to remove is the Fan and Shroud to make working room. then take the drive belt and balancer off, then pull the pulley off and the seal is right there? Then pull it our carefully as not to gouge sealing area, replace with lubed seal and tap it back into place. Then replace drive belt, pulley and balancer?

 

I know on my 94' Ranger 2.3; to get the Crank Pulley off, you had to take like a 22mm socker and a breaker abr to get the nut ogg in the center of the pulley. How is the 4.0 to get the Crank Pulley off?

 

you take the nut off then install the puller and it will pull it right off. go to the store and find a harmonic balancer puller set every thing is in the kit to get it off

 

so is there a TSB on this? i thought i'd look just for the hell of it and sure enough....

excuse the night pics, i wanted to get to the bottom of this.





if anyone doesn't know if there is a TSB, where could i go to look for one?

 

If you have warranty left, what do you need a TSB for?

 

it'd be for those that don't have warranty, like scott. i'd also like the TSB so when i went to my dealer, i can just give them that and there is no arguing about if it covered or not before they look up the TSB themselves.

 

what is TSB? and yours is leaking too!!!!??

edit, NM, googled it and its a technical service bulliten. I bet there is no recall on it.

 

im just going to but the Timing Cover Seal from RockAuto. its 14.77 for the set. All i need is the little round seal though. I thought it was called a crankshaft seal, but when they look that up, all it comes up with is the Rear seal which this most definitly is not! I called Ford yesterday, and the parts fella told me that its part of the timing cover set. Its $32 at Ford. So i do think ill get the Rock Auto. Opinions

 

i'd replace what ever came in the kit. it could be a weak link if you don't. thanks for finding it and giving me the idea to look.