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Rangstang
Member
- Joined
- May 5, 2010
- Messages
- 194
- Reaction score
- 0
- Points
- 16
- Location
- Mesa, AZ
- Vehicle Year
- 2003
- Make / Model
- Ford
- Engine Size
- 3.0
- Transmission
- Manual
- My credo
- If it ain't broke, I can't fix it.
Hello everyone!
I'm a long time Ranger owner, so I recently added a 2003 Edge 5 speed for my son to drive. Noticed it had a pretty serious leak coming off the bottom of the bell housing when I bought it, but figured a quick rear main seal replacement would take care of it.
When I got the flywheel off, I noticed it had been recently changed to a "FelPro" orange rubber seal just like what I was about to install, which concerned me a bit. Although, the installer had dented the seal in 3 places trying to install, so I figured that was it.
I noticed that the seal lip was riding in a different place on the crank than the original Ford seal was riding, so there were two clean paths on the crank surface. Needless to say, I spent a little time cleaning the crank with 320 grit and then followed up with 600 grit and 1000 grit before installing the new seal as I wanted to keep from damaging the seal on the carbon build up that was on the surface.
I also replaced the oil pressure switch/sending unit while the trans was out since it was easy to get to. During a visual inspection, the whole back of the block was dry inside the mounting area, so it didn't look to be leaking from something else. The only leak I could even see appears to be a minor one from the passenger valve cover.
Put it all back together and it leaks just as bad as it did before. I watched and determined it drips every 10 seconds.
This is not my first rear main seal replacement. I've done Mustang 5.0s at least 20 times and I replaced one on my 2000 Ranger 3.0 back in 2008. Any ideas? Thanks in advance for reading this long post...
I'm a long time Ranger owner, so I recently added a 2003 Edge 5 speed for my son to drive. Noticed it had a pretty serious leak coming off the bottom of the bell housing when I bought it, but figured a quick rear main seal replacement would take care of it.
When I got the flywheel off, I noticed it had been recently changed to a "FelPro" orange rubber seal just like what I was about to install, which concerned me a bit. Although, the installer had dented the seal in 3 places trying to install, so I figured that was it.
I noticed that the seal lip was riding in a different place on the crank than the original Ford seal was riding, so there were two clean paths on the crank surface. Needless to say, I spent a little time cleaning the crank with 320 grit and then followed up with 600 grit and 1000 grit before installing the new seal as I wanted to keep from damaging the seal on the carbon build up that was on the surface.
I also replaced the oil pressure switch/sending unit while the trans was out since it was easy to get to. During a visual inspection, the whole back of the block was dry inside the mounting area, so it didn't look to be leaking from something else. The only leak I could even see appears to be a minor one from the passenger valve cover.
Put it all back together and it leaks just as bad as it did before. I watched and determined it drips every 10 seconds.
This is not my first rear main seal replacement. I've done Mustang 5.0s at least 20 times and I replaced one on my 2000 Ranger 3.0 back in 2008. Any ideas? Thanks in advance for reading this long post...
