Front Crankshaft Seal

Can someone please provide detail directions from their experience of replacing the oil seal round the front of the crankshaft on a 1992 1.5 Civic.

Thanks

Reply to
Jasper
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A regular named "Eric" gave me very good help with this in

2004 for my 1991 1.5L Civic. Jim Beam also had a few hints. The link below takes you to disussions of this. They mention the camshaft a lot, but I used the same approach for both camshaft seal and crankshaft seal. Summarized:

Once you have the seal exposed, I recommend using a corkscrew and/or old-fashioned can opener to dig into the rubber of the seal and twist it out. Be very careful not to scratch or dent the metal in which the seal sits.

Studying the new seal helps IMO, so you'll know into what you're trying to "hook" with your corkscrew and can opener.

Removing the old seal:

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Installing the new one (see Eric's June 9 post):
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If you need assistance getting the pulley bolt off, ask. There's plenty of help in this group's archive for this.

"Jasper" wrote

experience of

on a 1992 1.5

Reply to
Elle

I would add to Elle's fine directions that the seal has to be worked out in a round-robin fashion. It isn't very tight, but it needs a bit of coaxing. As she says, take care not to scratch the crankshaft or block. Scratches can be filled, but you really don't want to go that way.

I assume you will take advantage of the opportunity to replace the timing belt and maybe the water pump (depending on how long it's been)?

Mike

Reply to
Michael Pardee

I have 20K mi on the pump and belt. The seal began leaking 1 year ago (10K ago). It would probaly be wise to replace the timing belt and seal at the same time. Thank you

Reply to
Jasper

replacing that seal is fine & dandy, but here's a couple of things to consider:

  1. some oils cause seals to leak, some don't. using a good oil may completely eliminate your need to replace [google for my experience with motorcraft oil].
  2. if you're going to replace seals, the real priority is the main seal on the flywheel end. that has to deal with a much higher relative speed than the pulley end and therefore has a much harder time sealing. and if it's leaking, it's real messy, can affect the clutch, etc.

bottom line, people do the pulley end seal mainly because they can get at it. and let's face it, it's one more thing to sell the customer. regarding your needs, if it really is leaking, while the main seal is not, go ahead and replace. BUT, if using a decent oil can address the underlying cause, i think that's a better way to go because you're also dealing with the other little things like the distributor seal [only "replaceable" by swapping out the whole distributor body for $270-odd bucks], etc. and scratching the sealing surface on the crank is a real bummer.

have fun!

Reply to
jim beam

and a question: what oil are you using now?

Reply to
jim beam

Reply to
Jasper

brand. what brand.

Reply to
jim beam

jim, i don't question your wisdom for a second, but please explain how one end of the crank spins faster than the other (why is it more important to do the flywheel side versus the pulley side)? or am i reading cross-eyed? :)

t

jim beam wrote:

Reply to
T L via CarKB.com

They don't. Both ends spin at the same rate. However, if you compare the seal journals on the crankshaft, then you should note that the rear main seal has a larger diameter than the front crank seal. Thus, with a larger diameter, the rear main seal will experience a faster speed where the metal seal journal contacts the rubber seal lip. It's still the same rpm but a point on the larger diameter journal must travel faster in order to cover a larger distance in the same amount of time.

Eric

Reply to
Eric

Reply to
Jasper

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