Sunday, April 12, 2009

Replaced Rear Transmission Seal

On Thursday, I picked up a seal removal tool and was able to remove the rear seal from the transmission. The seal was much larger than the replacement I purchased at NAPA. While the new seal fit fine, it did not seem to be of very good quality but was made by Federal-Mogul (#1505).

On Friday, I checked at O'Reilly and they sold a much better National/Federal-Mogul seal (#7692S). Their seal was thicker and came with a dust boot which covered the part of the yoke which moves in and out of the transmission. I went ahead and took the other back to NAPA.

Tonight, I installed the new seal and then checked the rear U-joint. The U-joint appears to be in good condition. I noticed zerk fittings under a thick layer of grease for both the front and rear U-joint and took them out, cleaned them up, and filled them both with grease. The rear did not need any but the front took about four pumps of grease.

I then installed the driveshaft and tightented the U bolts. I drained the fluid from the transmission and later measured what was left to find only 15 oz. The drain bolt is one of the magnetic type which had about a marble sized piece of metal and grime covering it. I cleaned this up, installed the drain plug, and filled the transmission with fluid. It took 48 oz of the new NAPA gear oil to fill the transmission.

I'm amazed there was only 15 oz in the transmission. I've put 560 miles on the Mustang including the drive back from San Antonio. Since I could see fluid leaking from the shifter seals, I assumed there was an adequate amount as the shift seals are very high up on the Mustang. If I dropped down to 15 oz after filling it up in only about 10 miles, I would guess I've not had anymore than 15 oz in all along!

I drove the car around the block a few times to warm up the engine and check for leaks. There are no leaks at this point. I parked the Mustang back in the garage with a piece of carboard underneath. I'll check again in the morning and see if anything has leaked out.

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