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Balance Shaft Oil Leak

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Old 07-30-2005, 10:47 PM
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mn_german
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Default Balance Shaft Oil Leak

I just finished my first timing belt/waterpump/ft seal job on my 86 NA a few weeks ago. After 400 miles, I noticed a puddle of oil underneath the car. I pulled the timing covers and removed the balance belt and balance sprockets/rollers. The oil is coming from the lower balance shaft and leaking between the balance shaft and the sleeve (not the seal and the sleeve). Both the sleeve and seal are new.

Is the sleeve at fault or is it another seal in the BS assembly that has failed?

Thanks,
Pete
Old 07-31-2005, 12:02 AM
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83na944
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Did you replace the mylar seal?
Old 07-31-2005, 01:30 AM
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WolfeMacleod
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We had the very same problem, and we did replace the Mylar seal. Our seal kit was the Kaco kit. Leaked like a sieve.
If you got it from Vertex, did you check all the part numbers? They originally ent the wrong part for the camshaft seal...
Second time seems to be OK, but I haven't pulled the pan to check yet.
Old 07-31-2005, 11:19 AM
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Granite 944
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Originally Posted by WolfeMacleod
We had the very same problem, and we did replace the Mylar seal. Our seal kit was the Kaco kit. Leaked like a sieve.
If you got it from Vertex, did you check all the part numbers? They originally ent the wrong part for the camshaft seal...
Second time seems to be OK, but I haven't pulled the pan to check yet.
Well, the problem on your car sure appeared to leaking between the seal and the spacer, as indicated mainly by the oil puddling up inside the lip of that seal. I know we originally put in a brand new seal, and mylar, and reused the original spacer. Spacer had very slight wear on it (couldn't catch a fingernail on the grove), and the funny thing was, it was this balance shaft seal that leaked like a seive, and not the camshaft seal as I was expecting, since we removed that seal the first time, and had to reinstall it, cause we didn't get the correct seal in the kit the first time.

If you know you used the mylar, and your SURE you've used the correct seal (there can be 1mm diference between upper/lower bal. seals), than maybe it is a leaker caused by a worn seal spacer, or.......what I suspect in our case, just a defective off brand seal that won't seal properly. This is also assuming, the seal was not damaged installing it. And I'm also assuming you removed the entire front bearing cap, and replaced the O-ring seal that goes behind that.
Sometimes, it can be very hard to tell exactly where the leak is coming from. Are you SURE its coming from between the spacer and shaft? If so, most likely the mylar washer.
Old 07-31-2005, 10:29 PM
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Mike C.
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I did have a problem when I re-used worn seal spacers. It had a groove that was just noticable but I though 'naa that won't cause a leak'. Wrong. The same thing happened when I re-used a worn oil pump drive spacer.... D'oh!
Old 08-01-2005, 12:44 AM
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mn_german
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Thanks for the replys everyone.

The leak is definitely coming from between the shaft and the sleeve.

I took the seal out tonight and the sleeve is stuck. It won't rotate independently of the balance shaft and thus won't slide off. The balance sprocket slid right off.

Anyone have a good idea how to get the stuck sleeve off?



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