front oil seal replacement

[914-6]

Hi Guys, is it possible to replace the front oil seal(behind the fan) on a type 4 variant with engine in the car ?

many thanks
Ian

[raygreenwood]

Yes you can. A full written list coming later.

Ray

[halfassleatherworks]

as Ray said, but the Fan hub on the crank can be a Mother, I had to put my crank in a 10 ton press to get it off,

[Hawker]

Hello Ian.

Yes, it is possible and can be done with the rear of the car up on ramps. I did this seal replacement on my 411 on the driveway of a friend and it only took an afternoon.

BR,

Rob

[raygreenwood]

What everyone says....

So its like this.....lets talk fan hub for a minutefirst. You will not easily get to this right off the bat but the sooner you can first pull the fan off put some pentrating oil on the hub and with a mandrel or socket give it a few hard whacks...straight on.

Then put the fan back on and torque the bolts. Grap the fan with your hands and wiggle it...slap it a little...do not bang on it. You may get it apart easily with the hub still attached.

If that fails, I have learned the hard way. Do NOT use a three arm puller on the three holes where the fan mounts. You WILL bend the hub.

Use a little heat...whack on it straight on and try the fan wiggle again.

Then what I have done is to use a crude screw and slide hammer to remove teh seal from the bore....cut the seal off with a large pair of snips or dremel etc. This gives you room to get a two arm puller all the way under the ledge....not the ears where the bolts go. Treat it like a oitman arm (same thing. It has a morse taper). Put tension on it, some heat and then whach the center screw of the puller with a three pound sledge.

Ok....long before you get to the hub. You can do this without removing the engine and trans but you should lower it:

As noted...put the rear up on ramps or stands. Tires maybe an inch or so off the ground. You need about 6-8" of lift.

1. Remove the rear cheese grater fascia down by the exhaust.
2. Remove the dipstick and loosen the boot on the down pipe and dipstick pipe.
3. Take the wires loose at the alternator plug and coil. Watch for anything else snagging you as you lower the engine down.
4. I would not take the intake boot loose. I remove the two (maybe three) 6mm bolts that bolt the plastic part attached to the rubber boot and bolted to the fan shroud loose.
5. Put a jack under the engine case.
6. Bend back the locking tabs and remove the two 8mm horizontal bolts that go through each end of the rear hanger bar....first.
7. Remove the nut at each end of trhe hanger bar on the verticalstud. Do not remove the outer hangers from the body. Do not mess with the top nut on the vertial stud at each end of the hanger bar. This is an adjustment.

8. With a 10mm socket, a ratchet and about 16" of extensions, remove the tailpipe for the heater....only if you need to.

9 Loosen the clamp at each steel elbow on each heat exchanger and pull both elbows off. Leave the attached to the flexible hoses.

DO NOT remove the two big horizontal bolts and nuts that go through the transmission hanger bar under the two rubber covers in the firewall sheet metal. Leave teh engien attached to these two big rubber bushings that are in the ears that mount to the transmission.

Instead.....
10. Slide underneath the car with a ratchet, a 13mm socket and about 18" or more of extension bars. Look upward so you can see those two big ruber bushings that hold the transmission in that that I was just talking about. They have a 13mm bolt on each side. Remove those two bolts on each bushing.

11. You are now free to lower the engine down far enough that you can look straight on at the fan hub.

Watch for things like the hoses and wires that come from fuel injection components to the MPS and items like the accelerator cable or anything else that may snag.

Oh...probably remove the air cleaner boot as well from where it attaches to the body.

At this point you can easily loosen and rmove the fan belt and start working on the fan and hub.

Ray

[914-6]

thanks Ray, as usual a very comprehensive answer.

[wagen19]

[raygreenwood]

[wagen19]

[raygreenwood]