ibkevin

Can this be done correctly in the car? By correctly I mean not smearing RTV all over the back of the housing, but by removing and resealing it with LocTite 574 and replace the aft oring.

I have the engine support on and the Lindsey 3pc crossmember but it looks like the exhaust header will keep me from getting a bolt out.

Do I need to bring up the pass side of the engine to get more clearance?

TIA

Chris White

Depends on which shaft housing you have - is it the one peice or the seperate bearing cap style?
The seperate cap style can be done - but it is a tough fit. The motor mount arm is the big problem.
The one piece style is more of a problem - i have never done one of those with the engine installed.

ibkevin

I'll post a pic of the upper from when I did it, I'm not sure which I have. Firing up the other computer...

ibkevin

pic, what am I looking for?

hosrom_951

Well, with the factory x-member, some of the lower bolts cannot be torqued down due to space.

But since you have the 3-piece member, i 'think' it could be done.

I cleaned the area behind the shaft and added some high temp silicon, oil free for 3 years now.

ibkevin

BTW, this was the upper on my car.

fortysixandtwo

That's the one piece style. The bearing shell is held by the cover casting. On a two piece style, there's a separate bearing cap that sits inside the cover and is held to the block by it's own studs.

ibkevin

...I was afraid of that, thanks Guys...

Problem is the front of that cover, where the PS mount bolts, is also seeping so I figured I'd hit it during the a-arm rebuild.

Time to rethink this, I won't have the final parts for the arms till next Tues.

turboted

I'm in the exact same situation...my lower shaft housing is leaking from the end cap. Like you, I was gung-ho to fix it the right way...replace all o-rings and seals, then re-seal the housings with locktite. But - once I took a good hard look at what's involved, I decided to slap RTV on the back of the housing and see what happens.

Ten minutes verses 2 days...a no-brainer, if it works. Several Rennlisters have had success with the quick RTV fix for thousands of miles. I haven't finished my project yet...but hope to by the end of this weekend. I'll let you know how the RTV works out.

xtaC

Ok, I'm looking at doing this, as well as resealing the oil cooler block.

Can someone give me some idea of how big of a job this is going to be on a car with a standard X-Member, and exhaust. By that I mean, what exactly do you need to remove in order to be able to get in there, and get to everything properly?

Thanks guys,

Lee.

turboted

Lee - I believe you must remove the exhaust, cross member, and headers/manifold in order to gain appropriate access to both the oil cooler and the lower balance shaft housing. Chris White says its possible to replace the lower housing without removing the headers (see above) and he probably knows better than me. Personally, I'm not going to attempt it.

If you can, wait on both projects until either 1.) you blow a head gasket and take everything apart anyway; or 2.) you decide to remove the motor from the car. This is a personal preference, of course...I think both jobs are much easier with crap out of the way. I did my oil cooler seals while I had the head off the motor and it was very easy. I'm kicking myself now for not replacing the lower balance shaft seals at the same time.

ibkevin

Hehe, talk about redoing stuff...

About 2.5 years back when I got the 951, Dad and I did a front reseal, rod berrings, cooler seals, head o'haul, and MM's because the car had no records. We really brought this car back from the grave. The one piece we overlooked, resealing the lower bs housing, is creating a bunch of pain for me with spots in the drive and a drip pan in the garage.

A year later Geoff and I installed the 3pc Xmember...