Randolph

87 5KCSTQ

Most of the parts arrived but the starter won't be here till Mon. I figured yesterday I'd start taking stuff apart. I removed the old starter, lowered the subframe, drained the oil and removed most of the oil pan bolts. I removed 6 bolts holding the flywheel cover on but still have 2 (I think) to remove. Then I have to remove plugs and rotate the engine to align the flywheel to remove the pan.

Some observations so far: I can see the oil pan gasket is due. No doubt about that so this job is not a waste of time. However, I had the horrible thought that maybe my rear main seal is also leaking. There is not much info when I search for this. A search turns up this problem for the V8's a lot but not the 5000. Hopefully, when I get the pan completely removed I'll be able to better tell. I think this is a trans out service.

I've heard horror stories about removing these starters. I found it to be very simple. Here's my tip for anyone that wants to remove a starter on a manual trans 5000. Maybe this is common knowledge but I've never read it. The bottom bolt is simple. The top bolt I found that if you position a socket on the bolt from under the car through the pass wheel well (no need to remove the wheel) then go up top and remove the washer fluid bottle (30 secs to do that) you can reach down and grab your wrench with plenty of leverage.

R

Kneale Brownson

If the rear main seal is leaking, you'll probably have to do a clutch job not too far down the road anyway, and that'll be the time for replacement.

I think Bernie advocates snakeoil treatments to stop RMS leaking.

MarkPan

I'd change the pan gasket, give it a good wash and see if you're still getting leaks.

rear main is a big job. When I got my car, the previous owner just had the clutch changed, 5 or 10k before I bought it.

The cowboys decided to change the rear seal at the while they were in there (reasonable, cheap insurance I suppose) but they used the wrong bloody seal... it got all chewed up and leaked pretty bad.

I think it took me a week to change it, working on it here and there. It must be a $2k job at the shop. I think I changed the U joint and bearing on the prop shaft at the same time, and some inner CV boots, etc, though...

Randolph

Thanks guys.

Kneale, can a leaky rear main cause premature wear on the clutch? If it does then maybe I DON'T have a problem because this leak has been here since I've owned the car and the clutch feels as good as the day I first bought it. I've had the car since around 02. Seems reasonable to think that if this was indeed the rear main my clutch would have gone by now. (I'm hoping this is the case)

Mark, what you suggest is exactly what I'm going to do. I tend to assume the worst sometimes with this car, maybe I'll get lucky. I plan to do a little more work on it later today and finish removing that flywheel cover and then maybe I'll be able to see what's going on a little better. My new starter should be arriving today also.

R