tough one -- Real Main seal on 1979 Trans am?

[Dahitman44]

It leaks like crazy and my mechanic is not sure what to do. He is a Ford mechanic and a darn good one but is not a fan of he rope seal for this car. He does not like the idea of a coil seal either.

Who has some experience on this type of car / leak/ and location?

It is a 79 with a 400 4 speed.Otherwise it runs great just leaks like CRAZY!!!!!!

Thoughts?

[Eric Wettschreck]

Not a tough motor to pull. If it were me I'd yank the motor and put in a whole new seal kit. Pan, front main, rear main, etc. Sometimes you can get lucky and jack up the motor, pull the pan, and monkey around with the rear main but by the time you've done all the goofing around you may just as well have pulled the motor.

You can have it done, start to finish, in a Saturday.

[Scott K]

Not a bad idea Eric! It would also be a good time to check a couple crank bearings then as well!

[theoilman]

I have rolled in the rope type seals in chassis a number of times. It can be a tedious aggrevating job - while getting oil dripped on you the whole time.

A hint - never use a steel punch to help get the upper half old rope seal out (I don't even like using brass). It will scar or scratch the crank and then it will leak forever - even worse. I have made punches out of aluminum knitting needles - so many sizes available, just cut, grind and shape as you need.

[Dahitman44]

Great Guys -- is there any other options or ways to do it other than the rope seal?

[deadeye]

If you yank the motor out you can do whatever you want. Fel-Pro has got a ton of stuff out there for those things. I concour with the other guys on here. A Saturday's worth of work and you could have that bad boy re-sealed perfect.

However if you are dead set on not pulling the motor then look up Lisle tools and there is a tool called Sneaky Pete that will make it so much easier. The rope type seals are the only option for a lot of cars. I used to sell stuff to a old school limo shop over north and they pretty much only used the rope seals for all the old stuff. They never seemed to have a problem with them.

[Dahitman44]

Somebody said something about a Cadillac seal or something like that? Does that ring a bell at all?

[DUCKAHOLIC]

you can get the pan off in the chassis on that car if you really want to.. ive done a pan gasket and rear main seal on my 79 camaro just jack the motor up and the pan will fall right out.. maybe 3 hrs and i had it all back together not that bad of a job..

[Dahitman44]

A buddy that is a "specialist" sort of on Trans am -- He said that a cadillac 500 ci seal will fit into that and it is a 2-piece like a chevy and will work much better and fit -- does this sound correct?