Rear main seal

[surfamtn]

Hey all,


I was wondering about your experience with rear main seals: I ordered a Fel-pro kit from Advanced auto. The picture online shows it includes the two little 3 inch rubber stick like seals that sit vertically in the rear main cap. What is in the kit is just the two rope seals that go around the shaft and not the little vertical ones.
When I removed the rear main cap it was rather tight. The two vertical seals seemed pretty rigid and hard but I'm not sure what they would feel like new. Obviously I would like to replace them.

Has anybody found a source for these vertical seals?

Anybody just reuse the old ones? +/- Coating them with RVT

[bigblockv6]

From what I understand those stick seals have been discontinued and just use RTV silicone in their place:ok:

[surfamtn]

So use the old ones and add RTV or omit the old ones and fill the gap w RTV?

[bigblockv6]

No do not use the old stick seals just fill in the gaps where the seals were with RTV silicone

[kchampagne]

Bigblock is correct. I recently replaced my rear main seal with the Felpro kit. If I recall correctly, you fill the gaps with rtv silicone, then push 2 pipe cleaners into the gaps. My old seal was a rope type and a pain to get out. If you haven't come across this yet, this thread has some excellent info, including replacement of the rear main seal on post #28. I reference this thread all of the time!

http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/showthread.php?t=575596&highlight=gmc+305

[FetchMeAPepsi]

Those pipe cleaner things...I wonder if you could use the tar/nylon tire hole patch kits instead and get more longevity out of the seal? The length is the same as the pipe cleaners, but no metal.