http://www.teamgrandwagoneer.com/cgi-bin/search.cgi?query=Main+seal
http://southtexasamc.tripod.com/after.htm
http://performanceamstyle.com/phpindex.php3?sessid=3531caca555fb5235f0e1d29883c0ca7&divi=amc
http://www.bulltear.com/index.php
These are just some of the AMC performance venders I stumbled across during my engine build. Bulltear being the one I did the most biz with.
I wouldn't hesitate contacting or dealing w/any of these ppl. They cater to the preformance crowd. You could always google "AMC performance parts".."AMC rear main seal"..etc
Personally, I like to use the semi dried lower intestine of baby Koala bears.

BTW, I looked at your profile for engine info. VERY nice CJ and I dig your jack placement. May I copy?

 

Greetings all,
Does anyone know of a present day quality maker of rear main seals?

Also, if there are any tips for removal/install of these seals beyond what the Service Manual dictates? Although, that manual seems very comprehensive there may be some nuances that folks have learned of since its printing.

Thanks and a lift of the lynch lid!
Gus

I have used, and sold, Felpro for 50 years. If I were to need a rear main seal tomorrow, I would be reluctant to use anything else. The Felrpo BS-40003 is what you should look for. Ought to cost $10-15 at your local parts house and is a 2 piece rubber seal. If someone tries to sell you the older packing type that looks like cloth...back away slowly then run for the door.

To install it you need to drop the oil pan so either get some silicone gasket maker, or a pan gasket set. (Felpro OS-13881 (C=Cork, R=Rubber, nothing=paper)). I like to use the rubber gaskets.

Once the pan is off you will need to loosen, or even remove, rear main cap. It retorques to 100 ft lbs. Once you do you should be able to screw a #10 metal screw into one end of the old seal and pull it out with a pair of pliers. If that doesn't work you can take a punch and push enough of the seal around to get some vise grips on the end the pull it out.

What I've used on real main seals for years we call a "Sneaky Pete", which makes the job much simpler. I just looked it up and it's a 27000 Lisle. Most auto parts stores (real ones), should carry them. I would make the $10 or so investment.

This is the best case scenario. Worst case you will have to loosen and retorque all the main caps to 100 ft lbs. (You definately need a torque wrench for this.)

Be sure to take note of the direction of the lip on the seal and replace it facing the same direction. With a little oil it should slide into place. Be careful not to pinch or nick the new seal. If you do, don't take a chace it will still work, go get another one. Not having to a job this big is worth the additional investment.

Once you are set and reqdy to replace the pan, whether you use #2 Permatex and a rubber gasket, or some silicone form-a-gasket product, again, take your time and snug the pan bolts carefully. Work a pattern like a star snugging them down. The pan is basically sheet metal and easy to bend over tightening.

Good luck and I hope all goes well...

 

I'm w/OldTex 100%. Felpro is what came in my kit, but I only have breakin time on it. I'm sure my machine shop would have pointed me to something better, if there is such a thing, 'cuz he knew i wanted "bulletproof". I even saved his technique as a word doc!

 

Thanks so much hutch and Old Texas, No problem copying that Hi Lift jack mount trick. Over the years I've used Fel-Pro with great ease, did the intake manifold a couple of years ago. What's got me on edge is the Asian Invasion of parts manufactured for American companies that fail to meet design standards. This all began about two years ago when I was repairing the leaks from the intake manifold. Slippery with coolant, I managed to drop the water neck, cracking a large chunk out of it. So I went to NAPA with the part number and of course, they had to order it in~took about a week. Upon installing it I noticed it being made in China and that the angle of the hose flange ran the upper radiator hose right into the distributor. So I returned it to NAPA understanding that sometimes in confusion, parts get restocked/reshelved in the wrong box/shelf. The puzzling thing was the part number cast into the new water neck was correct. A week later I received a replacement water neck, same part number with an even greater angle mistake! I gave up and went out to Mac's Jeeparts on Peoria Road outside of Corvallis and tore one off another old AMC, cleaned it up and it's been on ever since. Similarly, Hella Electrical out of Germany, a company I've relied on since the '80's for superior lighting products, as I recently found out is also outsourcing to China but at least when it came to some 70 amp electrical sockets they appear to be correct to design. Thanks again you guys! Kameraden!

 

What's got me on edge is the Asian Invasion of parts manufactured for American companies that fail to meet design standards. QUOTE]

I'm an old Cold War warrior and I also do my best to stay away from merchandise handcrafted by slave labor in a communist utopia.

While I always look for the "Made in Texas" sticker, I do my best not to buy anything from Red China, North Korea, Viet-Nam, Cuba, Venezuela or California.

 

I hear ya there Old Texas, was in the grunts myself from '79-'85 and especially in boot, we were given severe indoctronation that the reds were lower than whale scheisse, and decades later after I got interested in genealogy learning my family is Finn-German (Gustafsson-Wehsela) I learned of the historical reason for the angst against not only the reds (soviet) but of Finland's "hereditary enemy" from time immemoriam. The past is in the past I know, but, on the other hand there's he famous quote of "those that forget history are doomed to repeat it" inkeeping with Berthold Brecht's famous quote; "Do not rejoice in his defeat, you men. For though the world has stood up and stopped the bastard, the Schlampe that bore him is in heat again".
Be that as it may I'm rambling back to Jeep stuff.......:shhh:

 

What amazes me is the generation before my own took on the Nazis and chased the b*stards to the corners of the Earth wiping them out, but after crushing the Soviet empire the remaining communists, who we once fully understood were inherently evil and had to be crushed, are now, all of a sudden, our best friends. Well they aren't, and Russia isn't either.

In the end it will come down to Red China or us. They will destroy us, or we will destroy them. The longer we play these hanky panky games the more powerful they become and the more paimful the ultimate conflict is going to be. Communism is not dead, and it is as evil and henious as it ever was and we sit idle as nations such as Nicaragua, El Salvador and Chile, freed from the chains of communism in the 1970s and 80s, are reclaimed by communist dictators.

Not until we make the level of commitment we made eradicating the world of national socialists, eradicating the world of international socialists, will the future of mankind be secure. Socialism, in all its forms, is evil.