Re: [Chrysler300] 1955 C-300 rear main seal

["Warren Anderson" <wranderson@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

  I have dealt with Chrysler 331 type seals in the car. It is a time consuming project to get them right. 

  Two common pitfalls to avoid would be to try and remove the upper seal and to  set the bearing cap on sealer or a fragment of the rope seal. Pan seal is also important  A main bearing with excessive clearance will never allow a proper seal. Excessive crank end float is bad news also.

  I was instructed many years ago to leave the upper rope seal in place and to drive (pack with a punch tool) as much seal material as possible against the exposd end of the upper piece. From experiences in much later years, the upper seal is not going to come out by any means with the crank in the engine and packing does work. 

  Both halves of the seal, on an engine stand or in the car, must be carefully trimmed with say a razor blade. The cap must seat square in the block recess and that means nothing on the surfaces. Sealer of choice like Right Stuff (which works very well on clean pan surfaces also BTW) is best for exposed ends of seal halves which must be tight, compressive fit but NO sealer drooled on cap mating surfaces. That's what's tricky, keeping the seal ends tightly packed but off  the  cap/block mating surface area. .Assembly goo that looks like STP is best for bearings for restart protection.

  Can be done with success and good luck.

  Warren Anderson
  Sedona,AZ



  Is this same system employed on the 331 hemi in our 1955 C-300? The rear
  main is leaking and I'd like to seal it. I see the service manual just
  shows dropping the pan and rear main bearing cap and replacing the lower
  half of the seal with a special tool with the same OD as the shaft OD. The
  manual says don't worry about the upper half as it seldom gives problems.
  80K miles on the car.

  Any special materials, sealers or mechanic's tricks to recommend here?
  Source for the asbestos or whatever rope seal and pan gasket?

  C-300'ly,
  Rich Barber
  Brentwood, CA
  1955 C-300 (irritating and messy drips from tranny shifter arm and rear
  main)
  -----Original Message-----
  From: Chrysler300@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:Chrysler300@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On
  Behalf Of david dumais
  Sent: Thursday, July 17, 2008 6:00 PM
  To: chrysler 300
  Subject: [Chrysler300] rear main seal

    The rear main seal was installed per the Felpro tech guy's instructions. 
  The RTV was in the seal slot, and the two "pipe cleaners" were inserted into
  the RTV, and the black glue was made flush to the saddle edge.
   
   The rear main seal was left 3/8" out of the upper slot, and the opposing
  side was slid up 3/8 to butt up inside the saddle.  Bolts were lightly
  tightened to let RTV cure for 24 hrs.
   
  The results will hopefully be kind.   I believe John's finless G was bought
  from a Dr in R.I.
  that we met in Mystic,Conn.    The Gentleman cut off the fins so he could
  walk around it in his small garage without being bruised.

  D.E.DUMAIS

  [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

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