1952-59 Ford rear main seal

I'm finishing up my "overhaul" of the 351w while it's out and on the stand. i've replaced many gaskets and freeze plugs..blah blah blah..well i decided to change the rear main seal. and too my surprise..THERE IS NO OLD SEAL! i looked on the floor, i checked the buckets and pans full of old fluid and it's just not there i have no idea where the old seal could've gone thinking that it might have fallen off when i took the flex plate off. so i have no idea if it was even on when i was driving this car. i alway had an oil leak nothing major and i once put too much ****** fluid in which caused it to spray when driving so there's a lot of fluid and grease covering the ******.. How bad would it have been if there was no main seal while i was driving? i put the new seal on this morning so all is well..but damn if that aint a mystery!!

 

Wow! I would expect siginificant leakage with no seal in there!

I take it your engine has the one piece seal?

 

yeah it's a one piece. it just boggles my mind what could've happened to the old seal! and if i was driving it like that..

 

With no rear seal, oil pressure would push everything to the point of least resistance. Your bellhousing would be a fishbowl!!!! Seals roll when they fall; might be under a bench, etc.

 

Someone may have just used a whole bunch of RTV when it was last opened up LOL

 

basicly it would have been undriveable if it didnt have one.

 

I pretty much blew the main seal on my 292. It leaks oil like its goin out of style. Gonna try to get that fixed this weekend. Never done one, so its gonna take a while. Weird that you didn't leak much oil.

 

It's probably on the floor somewhere. You would have had a lot of oil leakage with nothing there. Hell, they leak when they're installed. Check your crank journal where the seal seats for wear. They old one piece factory seals were hard and sometimes wore a groove in the journal. If you find one, install the new seal a little "proud", about 20 or 30 thou, to let the new seal seat on fresh journal.

 

Johnny , trust me when I say , you can't just loose the seal and you can't drive with out one either . You would have pushed all the oil out of the engine and the smoke and smell of burning oil on the exhaust would have choked you yo death !. The oil spot on the floor would what been huge and a really big mess under the car ! You have more than likely removed the rear main seal and forgot about it or if you had any help they might have . I guarantee you that it was there !
Anyway just install a new one and don't worry about the old seal !

Jim

 

well the new seal is on and all is well..who knows, maybe the old seal will turn up somewhere and i'll have a good laugh