2.3L ('83-'97) Time for a new clutch 96 2.3

[scotts90ranger]

That looks like the same depth as your old bearing on one of your last pictures, looks like it hit the step in the crankshaft so that's all it'll do.

 

[justinae]

cool thanks. now back to the rms and hopefully better luck.

the area the seal goes in has been thoroughly cleaned. so just a tiny bit of oil on both inside and outside of seal, gently tap at 12, 3, 6, 9 to get it started then use block with hole for even hits. sound about right?

 

[scotts90ranger]

Yeah, about what I do... whatever it takes to get it to initially stick then tap it home, a lot of times I'll skip the block and correct tools and just make it flush with the nearest surface...

 

[justinae]

ok, just to double check, it's ok to have oil on both inside and outside? even wipe an oily finger along both the crank and the housing? really want to get this right and not be one of those guys coming back with a leak.

 

[scotts90ranger]

Sometimes they're a pain to install dry, I think I wing it every time... If they're the seals with just the metal covered with green sealer or whatever I think I try to leave those dry but if they're the black or red ones with rubber coating on the outside I wouldn't feel bad about having some oil on it... There "shouldn't" be enough crankcase pressure to push a crank seal out . A little oil on the inner lip is always a good idea to try to keep it from flipping around and losing the spring...

 

[justinae]

Ok y'all hows's this look? Went in pretty even and it is just the tiniest bit proud but honestly I think that's just the rubber. I have no way of knowing if the inside lip flipped but i didn't hear anything and nothing felt weird.

i had a film of oil on the crank and inside of the seal and left the outside dry.

 

[scotts90ranger]

Good to go. With the taper on the crankshaft getting the inner lip to flip around would probably be difficult...

Just a note in case I have forgotten to mention it, now is the perfect time to snug down the oil pan bolts, they're probably all just a touch loose... helps on some of the seepage although most of it is probably the valve cover, I know it is on mine...

 

[justinae]

Thanks and good tip. I'll throw my torque wrench on them. I really appreciate the help on this forum.

I'm also going to clean up the engine and start watching for where the oil comes from. Let's hope it's not my new rear main seal.

 

[scotts90ranger]

It's almost never the rear main unless they get old, it looked like your old one was just seeping and the rest of the oil was coming from the top which would be valve cover gasket. I'd say do that but it's a pain as the upper intake has to come off... why I haven't done mine.

 

[justinae]

Getting ready to install the new flywheel. Do these bolts look good enough to reuse? They seem ok to me. Interestingly no evidence of thread locker on them.

I kept them in order so I could put them back in the same hole, should i shuffle them?

I'm happy to get new ones but called Ford and they said the part is D4FZ6379A but they don't sell them anymore.

Looks like they're:

• Thread: M10 × 1.0 (fine thread)
• Length: approximately 28.6 mm under the head for the manual-transmission D4FZ-6379-A

 

[scotts90ranger]

I would just reuse them and not worry, if you use loctite clean with a wire brush first and maybe brake clean or acetone or something for good measure, blue or red would be fine.

 

[justinae]

yep, i cleaned the bolts with brake cleaner, going to do the same with the bolt hole and blow it out with air then let dry. then putt the loctite into the hole with a cotton swab instead of on the bolt as one thing I read is it can squish out in between the flywheel and crank.

 

[SenorNoob]

I'd go blue unless you wanna use a torch to take the flywheel off later. Just my opinion.

No need for a cotton swab. Just a couple drop on the end of the bolt will spread it through the threads as you install.

 

[justinae]

i planned on blue. thanks for the recommendation.
i'm going to try the cotton swab method. might be overkill but seems the safest and easy enough.