Leaking rear main seal

[Steve Manning <stephenm@ix.netcom.com>]

I have the classic squealing rear main seal problem on my '90 200tqw (as
described at http://www.intendedacceleration.com/html/tip7.htm).  It
started out being intermittent, and now has gotten to the point where it
happens almost continually.  The noise is about to drive me *nuts*.

I'm worried about the size of the leak; it's bad enough that the duty cycle
of the frequency valve will go from a normal fluctuating reading in the
mid-40% range to 80% or more when the squeal is occurring.

I have two questions:
1.  Is this seal leaking under boost also, not just at vacuum under idle,
and thereby causing all sorts of havoc?
2.  Is it worth paying someone just to replace the seal without replacing
the clutch, since the tranny would presumably have to come out anyway?  The
car has 136k and presumably a good bit of life left on the clutch, but if
it is just a matter of parts and the labor is the same I probably should
just get the whole lot done anyway.  I don't have the time to get this done
myself right now.

Thanks for any advice............SLM



Steve Manning:  stephenm@ix.netcom.com
...Physical home: Metro D.C. area, USA
.....Virtual home:  http://www.stationwagon.com