rear main seal leak repair on 351w

[tree37]

hello. i have a rear main seal leak on my 351w redline. its an 89. im down to the flywheel. 4 hex type bolts left. i assume the motor is clockwise rotation as when the hand hole cover is off the jet u can see the impeller work in that rotation by hand cranking. given that, what are the chances those bolts on the flywheel are reverse thread? having trouble breaking the bolts loose since everything is rust covered. soaked everything rather than attempt to gorilla the bolts out. any thoughts? thanks scott :whazzup:

[lucky2]

The bolts are right hand thread. They are a fine thread grade 8 bolt. You will need to use an air impact wrench or a big breaker bar to break them loose. They are typically torqued to over 80 lbs/ft when installed and after they've been on there a while, especially with the added rust and all, they will be a little tough to crack loose.

Good Luck!

[tree37]

right on lucky2. soaked the bolts overnight with wd got a 1/2 breaker bar. fly wheel is off!. thanks. i am planning on getting 4 new bolts for re assembly. should those be set with locktite or similar or just torqued back to 80ft/lbs? also i was planning on spraying the flywheel and inside bell hous with fluid film. anyway thanks for the input. i was dreading snapping one of those bolts.

[Quiet Riot]

spec for those bolts is 75-85ftlbs and use thread locker. Make sure threads are completely clean and oil-free for threadlocker to work properly. I use red loctite for those which requires a little heat to break loose which is why you were most likely having difficulty removing them.

jd

[tree37]

hey thanks. used red permatex. did clean bolts. tried to get new ones at napa. suprise they didnt have them up here in alaska. got everything back together. ill do a shakedown today. silvers are running hard down south so i hope this does it. times a wastin. thanks guys. scott