I am starting to suspect that it is a pulley under the hood somewhere.

It doesn't always howl. For example, everything was totally normal today.

 

New 2 Dodge - I would be very interested in hearing about your seal replacement experience. The rear pinion seal I can live with, since half the pickup trucks going down the road seem to have leaky differentials.

But the front main seal makes an unholy mess every 1500 miles or so, as the film of oil gets blasted back across the engine/transmission. If I were to have some other leak, say a rear main, or thermostat, it would be tough to tell what came from where.

If you could do a little write up, or even have pictures, of both seal replacements that would be awesome - and very useful for the forum. What mileage did you find the leaks? How bad were they? How many miles on the repairs? Where did you get your tools?

I am going to try to make it through this winter with the leaks, and repair them in the spring.

 

I was going to guess wheel bearing too, but if it disappeared its not that.

I had a freak wheel bearing issue, started around 9k drove it another 6k and decided it wasnt the tires.

 

Well, I finally got around to doing this. I will tell my story in case any newbies are looking to do this. Yes it is pretty straight forward with the proper tools. Thanks To TazRango for helping me with this.

- disconnect negative battery cable (I had a bitch of a time with this???)
- unplug two electrical connectors that attach to the collant/ washer fluid resevoir. Washer fluid will pour out if there is any in your tank.
- pull resevoir hose from rad, you will get some coolant coming out from that as well
- remove two bolts from resevoir and remove resevoir.
- Remove serpentine belt
- use whatever you can find to keep fan from moving. Use a large adjustable wrench on fan nut (approx. 1.5") and crack the wrench with a hammer until nut breaks free
- remove mechanical fan
- I think it would be easier if the electric fan could be pulled (3 bolts and electrical connection) but I have a problem with nut turning and couldn't get last bolt out but was able to move the Efan partially out of the way.
- Use impact gun to remove Harmonic balancer bolt - otherwise, you will need a breakerbar and a way to keep cranshaft from moving
- use three jaw puller to remove harmonic balancer (cannot use harmonic balancer remover as there is no where to thread the bolts)
- Use seal puller to remove old seal (may be able to pry out with a screw dirver but becareful not to score the walls.
- lube outer ring of new seal with oil and lign it up with opening
- for the life of me I could not get the seal to go in straight with a socket of the same diameter and a hammer so I created a "plate that was a little larger around than the seal with a hole in the middle. I put the HB bolt in the hole of the plate and tightened it until it pushed the seal alll the way in flush. Worked great!
- start harmonic balancer on (straight of course and lined up with the key) and tap it on enough to get the harmonic balancer bolt started and use impact gun to draw it all the way on.
- reinstall items removed and there you have it!

Beware, I ordered a "cranckshaft seal" from Rockauto but it was not the right part. I ended up getting one from the dealer. (they called it a timing chain cover seal).
This is definately do-able by someone with limited mechanical knowledge and with the right tools. It is hard to remove and reinstall parts without the tools but it was an overall easy project.

 

You have both a mechanical fan and an E fan?

Good write up, I think I can picture your seal seating tool. So it sounds like the crankshaft barely pokes out from the front of this timing cover?

 

Yes, I have both the clutch fan and an e fan.
No, all you would see is the shaft that the pulley goes on. Do you have an impact wrench?
The seal removers are dirt cheap - I think I paid less than 10 bucks for mine.

 

To figure out the howl you should start doing some checking:

Lift the front tires off the ground, spin them and see if there is any noticable drag or noise.

Change the rear fluid (it needs it after 60K) if the fluid is bad it will kill the bearings quick then you would be forced to upgrade to 4.56 gears :-)

Remove the belt and spin idler and tension pully to check for drag

 

Yep I can get my hands on a impact gun - will a typical impact set have the size socket I need?

I've also seen the T-shaped seal pullers online for cheap.

What was your mileage when the seal went, and how many (hopefully trouble-free) miles have you put on it since?

Thanks for all the help - I'm fairly confident in my ability to tackle this one.

 

You just need a 3 jaw puller - don't get a harmonic balancer puller or one that uses bolts. Yah, I believe the balancer bolt was only a 15mm? The only one I didnt have was an adjustable that was about 1.5" for the clutch fan. The seal was gone when I bought the truck at 189,000km (I think that's about 110,000 miles) and I changed it at about 195,000km - just did it in August so only about 1000kms on it since. No issues.
Yes you can do it - If I can, anyone can (except maybe my brother in law). The only thing I wish I would have had at the time was a phone # of some one here for support. Waiting for a response to a question on a forum when you are ***** deep in a project really sucks. I can give you my # when you go to do it - in case you have questions.

 

Guess I didn't do a write up on the pinion seal but this vid is basically the video I followed when I did mine.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15zHpz6Zx8c