Rear Main Seal

["Al Powell" <APOWELL@agcom.tamu.edu>]

As I posted earlier, Mitch Loesher and I have a strong suspicion that 
the rear main seal in in 1990 200 is going.  There's plenty of oil in 
evidence underneath, and it appears like it's being thrown out of the 
vent holes in the bellhousing.  The spinning torque converter could 
certainly create this effect.

Bad luck.  I've never had a rear main seal go west, and this is far 
from the easiest car to operate on for this problem.  I will try 
running a semi-or non-synthetic oil to see if the leak stops, as the 
Mobil 1 in there is great at getting past weak seals...and being 
forced to run standard oil would be a fair tradeoff if it stopped the 
leak.

Has ANYone on this list ever tackled this?  Do you folks have any 
opinion about whether the rear main can be replaced without pulling 
the tranny and transaxle?  If it can be done by dropping the pan, I 
might just try it myself...but if it requires pulling the whole drivetrain off, I 
think a shop might get my biz - WHEN it gets bad enough to force my 
hand......right now it's not leaking enough to lose a quart between 3K 
mile filter changes.

Thanks for your thoughts, etc.

Al Powell                           Voice:  409/845-2807
107 Reed McDonald Bldg.             Fax:    409/862-1202
College Station, TX 77843           Email:  a-powell1@tamu.edu 
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"Baseball is 90 percent mental.  The other half is physical"...
...Yogi Berra.