Changing front seal on 7.3 IDI

[DrCharles]

The front seal is leaking and I'm going to change it. Have a National speedi-sleeve and a new seal in hand. What will I have to remove from my '93 7.3 5-speed in order to access it? Most of the threads I have found here and on other forums say to remove the fan and shroud. Looking for a 1-7/8" wrench for the fan clutch now

I have one of these flange pullers I bought a long time ago (OTC 518), and can't remember the last time I used it
https://www.otctools.com/products/flange-type-puller

But do I have to pull the radiator too? (hoping not to).
Will be working on ramps in the driveway... Thanks for any advice.

 

[IDIoit]

chances are if the front crank seal is bad, the gasket isn't far behind.
I always pull the timing cover, which involves removing a lot of ****.
including the radiator.

 

[DrCharles]

Could be... but the front seal has to spin whenever the engine is running... the gasket just has to sit there
For now I'll just do the front seal. If someday I have to do the pan or front cover, pulling the damper again is minimal compared to all the other "lot of ****"

 

[DaveBen]

The seal does NOT rotate. If it does, you got real problems.

 

[DrCharles]

Oh come on, you know what I meant. The crank rotates against the seal lip. Obviously the seal assembly is stationary in the front cover...

 

[genscripter]

I personally would pull the front plate. It would be a lot of work to get room for the puller situated. At that point, you might as well do the whole job and reseal the front plate gaskets too. Plus, if you pull the plate, I doubt you'd need to take the time to extract the radiator. http://www.nickpisca.com/diesel/engine/6-9-7-3-idi-front-and-rear-main-seal-replacement/

 

[DrCharles]

I don't understand... to pull the front plate, don't I still have to remove the damper first, which requires using the puller anyway?

 

[genscripter]

OH, I thought you were talking about the front seal puller. If you are talking about the harmonic balancer puller, then you should be able to do it with the rad in place.

 

[DrCharles]

Yes... first step is always to pull the damper

But I think I can get the seal out of there with the rad in place (protected by a piece of plywood of course). May have to make or rent a tool though, but have found enough threads where it was done without the special Ford puller to bolt onto the front plate.

 

[MtnHaul]

FWIW I thought my front crank seal was starting to leak but turned out it was my lift pump gasket. Replaced the lift pump and gasket--no more leaks. It is amazing how oil moves around as the vehicle is driven because it really looked like oil was seeping from front of engine.

 

[DrCharles]

That is true... but the centrifugal, even distribution of the caked-on grease+oil leads me to suspect the front seal first. Once I pull the damper I will thoroughly clean off the front of the engine and see if it recurs.

Besides, I recently replaced the mechanical lift pump with a Facet electric, so have a new block-off plate and gasket

 

[79jasper]

Lol so you just disturbed an area that was just mentioned to leak....

Sent from my SM-G892A using Tapatalk

 

[snicklas]

Lol so you just disturbed an area that was just mentioned to leak....

...and some of the block off plates will cause a leak because they hit the lip on the block and do not seal....

 

[DrCharles]

... this block-off plate had been on a 360 FE in another truck, fitting properly without leaking. And I checked for that.
And the leaks predate my work in that area.
And it's kind of hard to install or remove parts without "disturbing" them "Lol" yourself.