Help! Rear main seal install.
Thread Starter
On The Tree
Joined: Jan 2005
Posts: 112
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From: Boulder, CO
Help! Rear main seal install. I just got an LS2 402, and am trying to get it ready to put in my car. FFHP forgot to put on the rear cover, which I asked them to do (so I wouldn't have to worry about rear cover and rear main seal alignment). There's 3 alignment tools, J41479 (rear main seal), J41480 (bottom edge aligment), J41476 (centers rear cover on the crank). I tried local auto parts stores and the GM dealer, everyone says they do not have the alignment tools.
I got the rear cover on just eye-balling alignment. Now I'm trying to put the rear main seal in it, and can't get the damn thing on, without the lip of it starting to fold over. Has anyone installed a rear main seal without the J41479 tool? Or does anyone local to Melbourne have one I could borrow, or know where I can buy one? Maybe I'll swing by the dealership tomorrow, and go straight to the service department and see if they'll loan me a J41479 from their shop, since the parts department won't sell me one.
Thanks,
Miles
I got the rear cover on just eye-balling alignment. Now I'm trying to put the rear main seal in it, and can't get the damn thing on, without the lip of it starting to fold over. Has anyone installed a rear main seal without the J41479 tool? Or does anyone local to Melbourne have one I could borrow, or know where I can buy one? Maybe I'll swing by the dealership tomorrow, and go straight to the service department and see if they'll loan me a J41479 from their shop, since the parts department won't sell me one.
Thanks,
Miles
Thread Starter
On The Tree
Joined: Jan 2005
Posts: 112
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From: Boulder, CO
I found a post here where somebody recommended putting a couple layers of masking tape on the white plastic ring that the seal comes on, and it did the trick. It stretched the seal just wide enough to slip over the crank, without catching on the lip and folding over. 
Unfortunately, not long after that when I was bolting the oil pan on, one of the long bolts that goes into the rear cover pulled the threads right out of the rear cover.
I guess it's aluminum and there was a helicoil there? I'll have to get a new helicoil, or tap for a larger bolt, or maybe just JB-Weld it 
Unfortunately, not long after that when I was bolting the oil pan on, one of the long bolts that goes into the rear cover pulled the threads right out of the rear cover.
I guess it's aluminum and there was a helicoil there? I'll have to get a new helicoil, or tap for a larger bolt, or maybe just JB-Weld it Thread Starter
On The Tree
Joined: Jan 2005
Posts: 112
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From: Boulder, CO
Originally Posted by VSGLS1
You do know those 2 long bolts are Tq'ed in in/lbs right?
So then I backed it out, and there was a little aluminum coil wrapped in the threads. Not a helicoil that came loose like I first thought, the bolt was just threaded right into the aluminum. I got a helicoil kit at the parts store. I've never put in a helicoil before, but if the first one is pretty easy to install, maybe I'll do the other side, too.
