When my wife came home yesterday,she said the oil light came on in the van,so I checked the oil level,and sure enough it was down to the low end of the dip stick,so I put some more oil in and then started it up,and then I noticed oil dripping from the rear part of the motor,the valve pan covers and everything up high looked good and dry,the vans got around 197,000 miles on it,and I just got through replacing the distributor and crank sensor also new plugs and wires,funny thing I've never notice having such an oil leak like this before,I have a question I'd like to ask abut this,could this be the rear oil seal and if it be,Is it a hard job to replace? its even blew oil back on the gas tank,any advise would be greatly appeciated.

 

yep, rear main oil seals start leaking at about 190,000 miles. You would have to remove the transmission from the engine and take off the flywheel to get to it. Took me a day to do that because I don't have a engine hoist. I had to use some blocks and my hydraulic jack.

You gotta take off the CV axles, the exhaust arm, coolant pipe, and you don't have to but it would be safe to take of the wire connections to the transmission. Take off the transmission mount by the driver side tire and the front side transmission mount thats by the starter. Drop the transmission and take off the flywheel and you are right at it. When you install the new one make sure the seal is greased. I used the "all purpose" grease from Walmart thats bout 2 dollars.

You do know how to put the new seal in the seal bracket right?

 

Thanks Mike for the reply,well honesty I"ve worked on cars ever since the 1970's
but I'am in the same shape as you were,with no hoist,and I'll have to admit thats it's been a long time since I've fooled with a engine other than changing oil,sensors and the such,so what you're actually saying is the trans needs to be lowered with a floor jack and block of wood?and the part about the seal is it to be greased and drove in with a socket?

 

HOw I did it was I raised my van about a foot and a half off the ground. I used some jack stands and a one foot 2x4 wood across my oil pan to to support the back of my engine. I had more of one foot 2x4s blocks that I surrounded my hydraulic floor jack with as I lower my transmission on the blocks. The transmission isn't flat at the bottom like the engine so finding a lift point to keep it balanced on the jack is hard. I just remembered, I used 2 jacks at one point. I think it was to attach it back to the engine or allign it with the mount. I forgot.

 

Thanks again Mike,I'am hoping to start early in the morning on this.