Suspected timing shaft oil seal leak

[yellowfever]

So I decided to press on clean the oil leak up and remove the old seal. First bit a messy and boring job but got things reasonably clean with brake cleaner and elbow grease.

Removing old seal initially looked like it was going to be another time waster of a job. I had hoped it would be so knackered it would fairly easily spin, but no such luck. Using the trusty metal pics it didn’t move at all. I had hoped to be able to carefully dig into the seal (not too far given bearing close behind it…) with 90 degree hooked pic, missing the metal tension ring and then spin and pull the seal out.

Instead I found I was just laboriously flaking bits of hardened rubber seal off the surface The reason I couldn’t get deeper into the seal became apparent after a while - apart from the metal tension ring visible on the back of the new seal, there is also a completely rubber encapsulated metal face plate that was gradually exposed as rubber flaked off the surface with my failing attempts to spin it or pull it.

Cue some thinking about other options based on some online research I’d already done. Drilling and/or using self tapping screws as some had suggested/tried in similar situations did not sound appealing given the bearing is right behind, and even if I didn’t hit it there was the danger of bits of seal including metal getting lost behind the seal into the bearing. An engine out split cases job if that bearing needs replacing, so not something I want to risk.

From looking at the gradually revealed interior of the old seal and looking at the new seal it appeared the best bet to get past the metal plate and behind it so I could lever the seal out would be nearest the shaft where the seal lips were. Of course scratching the shaft is a risk and won’t help with sealing if I do. But anyway no going back given state of the now partly butchered old seal. Combined with the flaking off of some more rubber near the edge and centre this started to produce results. The pic worked great as I could keep the point away from the shaft and use the smooth pic shaft against the shaft for leverage. I soon got the seal spinning but it still took me ten minutes to manage to gradually work it out onto the shaft where I could finally remove it.

Still, by the standards of how this job has gone so far, it was a fairly easy win.

Photo shows removed seal with part of now well scratched up metal face plate exposed.



I’d heard these seals were originally blue (replacements are brown) but they turn black when they get old. Mine was certainly black, but sure enough the edge showed some original blue…



Judging by the black colour the brittleness of the flaky rubber and the signs of degrading seal lips before I removed it, it clearly was needing replacing. Whether it is confirmed as the culprit for the oil leak time will tell once it’s all back together…