3FE Rear Main Seal

[BirdManzFJ]

Sasquatch!!! that's funny.
I was just thinking to myself, "Is that Crum"?
That's the most hair I have ever seen. : )

Nice work Jon!!! See youz guyz soon.

 

[TrickyT]

Nice work, Jon. Sorry I didn't see this thread earlier as I would have suggested you buy a set of "oil pan snap ups." They make getting the new pan gasket properly located during re-installation a cinch.

 

[jonheld]

Tranny back in. Everything connected. Frame by the steering box fixed. Filled the crank case, mostly filled the tranny. Fired the engine up and she purred like a kitten.
Tomorrow we finish all the odds and ends with new lower control arm bushings.

 

[jonheld]

Back on the road.

Thanks again to Dave Crum who really worked his ass off wrestling with that 6000 pound pile of corrosion and rust I call a truck. The last 5 days have been an adventure for sure.

I have to laugh at the guys on MUD that said that this is a 2 day process to replace the rear main seal. Maybe if the truck was just off the factory line and you were working 18 hour shifts with 6 guys. It took a day and a half to get the transmission out of the truck. Every single bolt was a process to remove. The external cooler lines were seized to the compression fittings. They took almost 2 hours with PB Blaster and a torch and 2 wrenches to remove without breaking. It was ridiculous.
But, the rear main was replaced, the transmission is back in, fluids are filled, the side cover gasket is leaking (hooray), the frame by the steering box has been repaired (again), and the exhaust is sealed up.

On Friday, we decided to do some easy stuff like replace the lower control arm bushings that have been done for quite some time. That turned into an all-day project as 3 of the bolts were seized to the inner bushing sleeves. Torches, air hammers, impact wrenches were all useless. Dave used an oxy/acetylene torch on the first one and melted the head off the bolt. That wasn’t enough heat to free the bolt from the sleeve with the air hammer. The poly bushing material melted away and he was able to get to the bolt with a plasma cutter and slice the bolt in 2 places to get it out. The other 2 that were in the same condition got cut with a cutoff wheel through the bushing and into the bolt in 2 places to remove the arms. Then the remainder of the bolt head needed to be ground down to remove from the mount. Lots of fun. Once the arms were off, new OEM rubber bushings and new hardware were installed on the rear arms and the frame mounts of the front arms. The new black 3 degree caster bushings from Slee were used for the front. Plenty of anti-seize was used on all bolts, sleeves and hardware.

The truck seems to drive great. I need to slightly adjust the transmission linkage and the relay rod and make sure the tranny fluid level is correct and put together the inside of the truck. I’ll get to that within the next few days.

Every part of my body hurts.

 

[TrickyT]

Congratulations on your victory against the beast! Hopefully you are good to go another 100k now.

 

[Cruiserdrew]

Those bolts sound like a nightmare. We don't see that kind of corrosion after 40 years. Very impressive and unfortunate. Thanks for the pics and sharing the pain.

 

[d4iniguez]

Not that I remember. The writeup in the FSM was actually so detailed and complete up to that point that it really tripped me up and cost me several hours of frustration. I thought it was just rusted together for some reason. IIRC the 93 writeup was exactly the same except for the addition of the step with those two bolts.

I also remember looking at the pile of parts I had to remove to get the auto out and thinking that I really hope the manual works so I don't have to put all that back in there. If I had known I was going to reinstall the auto I would have been more careful removing everything - lots and lots of bolts and parts have to come off.

Having a lift will make it exponentially easier. Needless to say the a440 doesn't easily roll out from under even a lifted 80 when it's sitting on a transmission jack.

How did u successfully disengage the transmission from the motor, im having such a hard time disconnecting them?