Front main seal, and shift knob question.

[pcollins]

Got a couple of questions that i figured i'd just pile into one post. First one being, how hard is the front mail seal to change? Was doing an oil change and noticed the leak, its a very small one, but idk how long it will stay small.

second, is the shift knob from 4th gen rangers interchangeable with my year? (1997) I'm talking about the knobs with 12345 instead of 1234 OD. Not the fancy fx4 ones, just the regular ones.

Trucks a 97 4.0L V6, 5 speed 4wd. 146,7xx miles, and still crankin hard!

 

[ElleShooTiger]

It'll probably leak slightly until the day it goes to the great junkyard in the sky, I wouldnt touch it unless it start dripping heavily, which will probably never happen and its a lot of hassle to change it.

 

[pcollins]

My book says to just remove the crank pulley, remove the old seal, pop a new one in, and put the pulley back on...but if it doesn't get any bigger then yes, i'll probably leave it.

 

[pcollins]

does anyone know about the shift knob interchangeability?

 

[Tedybear]

My book says to just remove the crank pulley, remove the old seal, pop a new one in, and put the pulley back on...but if it doesn't get any bigger then yes, i'll probably leave it.

I'd leave it personally unless it really starts peeing out. Normal SOP on that job is also to have the end of the crank "Sleeved". The seal over times wears a small grove where it rides on the crank. That can cause early fail of any replacement seal--unless it is aftermarket with an offset to ride slightly forward or behind the stock seal. (I've heard of replacement seals like that---but haven't really looked or found 'em)

The main seal that needs attention would be a rear main seal. The front one doesn't hold pressure, it just deals with the run off. The rear seals when they suffer a hard fail? Will pee oil out quick.

S-