First Deuce -- Rear Main Seal

[snoplay]

thanxs cleb our group has a total of 6 M35s locally now so i'm sure there will be no lack of help or advice

 

[lobanz]

The job is done! Finished over a week ago. Just now getting around to posting. Works great now. New clutch seems fine. Old main seal had a big chunk out of it. Definitely the problem.

There was no "carrier gasket" or rear main seal retainer gasket. It was a very large sheet of gasket that covered the back of the fly wheel housing. One of the main seal retainers was broken so we replaced them. The big gasket looked fine so we left it.

Took some pictures, but they are no better than any of the others posted here, so i won't bother.

Transmission was made in England. We thought that was strange.

Also replaced parking brake cable and put on new parking brake drums.

Now for the front axle seals and knuckle boots ...

Thanks for the advice everyone. And thanks Cleb for letting us borrow the chain hoist.

 

[buddy_holly]

In an effort to keep multiple similar threads at a minimum I figured I'd post here.

From all the other leaky rear main seal threads I've read, I'm assuming most of you would assume that it's a bad rear main seal if it's coming out of the hole at the bottom of the bell housing, correct?

I bought my Deuce 2 years ago, almost to the day, and recovered her from Michigan to Tucson with absolutely no problems, no leaks, actually one of my least problematic road trips ever. Some 2K+ miles in 3 days. And I've had no real issues since then.

Now all of a sudden the oil pressure gauge is reading zero and very burnt, very thinned-out black oil is dripping out of that bell housing hole, leaving maybe an 8" dia puddle after a 30 min drive.

I was injured in a training accident in October and wasn't able to drive her for a few months; (Was medevacced in a fully armed Blackhawk with A-10s flying top cover, pretty sweet! Or so they told me once I was coherent) How long is too long when talking about a truck sitting idle? The longest she sat was maybe 2 months at a time.

I guess my questions are:

1) Is there any possibility it could be something other than a bad rear main seal before I go down that road?

2) Is there a way to tell before getting things dismantled?

3) If that is what it most likely is, would a college student be able to feasibly accomplish the repair with few heavy diesel tools to speak of, no experience with the interior of a motor and in my apartment complex parking lot?

4) If it'd be simpler/less costly in time/money/headaches to have a shop do it, with a bad rear main (assuming) what else should I be sure to have them inspect/repair?

 

[G-Force]

I'd worry more about the zero oil pressure than the leaky seal at this point in time. Put a mechanical gauge where the oil pressure sender is and see if there is any pressure at all.

 

[buddy_holly]

Is this mechanical gauge something I can get at an AutoZone? How does it attach to the motor?

 

[StoneMill]

Check out harbor freight unless you can borrow one at autozone. I agree that I would look into this before the main. As far as doing it in a parking lot, it's been done before. Just make sure you have all the tools you'll need before you begin. The first time was a challenge but there is always support on the forums. I could probably do it in half the time if I did it again. Have extra hands too. I was surprised how heavy the parts on these things are.

 

[StrykerPerry]

I didn't realize we had so many local people. I have a local group on Facebook called Tennessee valley military vehicles. Also I will possibly be repairing my rear main seal too I used some bars rear main story leak and it seems to have stopped it and brake cleaned the clutch several times. Not sure if it is fixed but it got me home 155 miles loaded over mountains and also to and from a couple of shorter trips over some