Not to play with your mind, but have you considered taking off the seal carrier? That way you can R&R the seals on the bench without risking nicking the shafts. Then you oil up the seals, bend over the radiator and work the carrier with the seals over the two shafts. One sticks out more than the othe so it goes on first. You still need to be careful not to roll the lip over but no installation tools are needed. You may need a gasket for the seal carrier, I didn't. The seals in my '93 949 B230 were so hard and stuck at 100,000 mi. that they just shattered like glass when I drove them out of the seal carrier with a punch. In my case, I doubt a seal puller would have worked.

I repleced the cam seal by taking off the cam cover and the front cam bearing cap. This exposes the cam seal and you can R&R this seal with your fingers. Sooo easy! Again, you may want a new cam cover gasket but mine was ok.

I understand just how you feel. BTDT.

Todd,

I understand how you feel, but you are making this job way worse than it is. Cleaning the shafts with mineral oil? How about just wiping them off?

The only important thing you do with the water pump is make sure the old gasket material is gone.

Oil seals:
motor oil... just a dab'l do ya. run some across the outside of the seal as well as the inside. That's all you need.

You DON'T use any antiseize or especially RTV. NO GLUE!!!

Seals are easy to get out... my recommendation is a seal puller, not a screwdriver.... but a screwdriver will work if you have it.

Installation of the seals takes a little more patience. If you have the seals, take them to home depot and find some PVC pipe a tad smaller than your seals. This is what I used to drive the seals back in.

The trickiest part is making sure the lip of the seal is facing the right way. But again, nothing to get an ulcer over.

When you are all done with this job you will kick yourself for how worked up you are getting.

What are you using to hold the balancer in place?

Keep us informed.

Mike

Make it easy on yourself. Lube things with whatever grease you have around, lithium is not needed.

Get an extra camshaft seal, and do that one first. If you screw up a seal, you have another on hand BTDT.

The seal area should be pretty clean and dry. Use some engine oil to wet the shaft, if you want. I found that gobbing grease into the lip of the seal pretty much got everything slippery enough. IIRC, I used front wheel bearing grease.

When removing the seal be verrrry careful to not even touch the shaft with whatever tool you are using. It is important that the shaft not have even a teeny weeny scratch - it will leak. If you (like me) do scratch a shaft, the scratch can be removed by sanding it down with 400 grit emery paper. Takes about 3 hours by hand.

Seal installation is not hard. Can be done with no special tools. Be careful to not "roll" the seal lip out, that will ruin it. Once the seal is started into its place, a small hammer used to lightly tap at top, bottom, left, right, top, bottom, etc etc many times until the seal is at the depth you want.

You might want to take the seals to a hardware store and buy some PVC fittings. Get one that's the same or slightly smaller diameter than the seal, and one that's a bit larger. That will allow you to tap the seal in straight rather than slightly canted. You will have to hit harder, though.

Good Luck,

Bob

:>)

I always use ordinary motor oil to lube seal lips. I don't lube or use RTV on the outer edge - they are a press fit. As such you will need an installation tool, but this can be a piece of pipe of the right ID/OD, or a large socket from your toolbox. Cleaning the shafts can't hurt and lets you inspect them for any wear from the seals. If the seals have grooved the shafts a little, you can try to seat the seals so the lips rub on unworn shaft section. This usually means trying to seat them a little deeper.

Water pump: I have occasionally found corrosion and/or deposits in the groove on top where the pump-to-head O-ring seats. This creates a potential leak path. (You may choose to obtain a new pump.) I cleaned this up, and put a thin smear of RTV into the groove, just before dropping the O-ring in there. Proper technique in reinstalling the pump is critical. Make sure ALL old gasket material is cleaned from the block. As I recall there are two studs and the rest of the fasteners are 10mm bolts. The pump has elongated holes for the studs. Run the pump up to the gasket on the block face over the studs, then press upward to compress the O-ring against the head and hold this force while tightening the nuts on the studs, and installing at least a couple of the bolts. Not too much torque - they're small. Then install the remaining bolts.

The heater return pipe along the block uses a square O-ring. Just make sure its recess in the pump is clean. Don't overtorque the nut that pulls the pipe into the pump. It's an engineered fit; when the tab on the pipe contacts the pump, things will move no further and the O-ring is properly compressed. So then you tighten for the purpose of keeping that nut from coming loose, not to improve the seal.

As you likely already know - this job goes much, much easier if you pull the rad, a quick job since you have already drained coolant.

--
Bob (son's 81-244GL B21F, dtr's 83-244DL B23F, 'my' 94-944 B230FD; plus grocery-getter Dodge minivan, hobbycar MGB, and numerous old motorcycles)