I was pleased to find out that my rear main seal is not leaking. My oil leak seems to be coming from the camshaft sensor.

It looks like I am buying a short torx bit and making some tools to pull the seal out and reinstall it. Does anyone have any advice about this? How deep in the engine is the seal? Has anyone used an aftermarket seal with good results?

I think that I can make a removal tool by bending the tip of a small flat screwdriver and grinding it into a point. For installation I am going to see if I can find a piece of pvc pipe to match the seal.

 

let me know how that works? cause i think my main seal is leaking....but i havent investigated it yet!

 

I was preparing to replace the rear main seal until I saw oil all over the top of the transmission bellhousing. Using a mirror on a stick I verified that oil was coming out of the cam sensor on the back of the head. Lucky me!

The book labor for the rear main seal is 6 hours, which probably translates to three days in my driveway. Also it is considerably more expensive: new flywheel bolts are $50 from the internet wholesale dealer, and you have to come up with some kind of tool to hold the flywheel. Hope this isn't your problem.

I bought SKF 11809 seal from the rock, maybe it will be here tomorrow so I can start looking for a socket or pipe to use as a drift.

 

Yea I have a buddy that is always pulling engines and changing stuff with his jeeps and he said he def help me out to do it if it is. I'll have to check I know I just replace my oil filler cap gasket the old one was so brittle when I took it off it almost turned into dust.

 

I found some of my impact sockets will make a nice drift to install the seal. My 36mm socket should do nicely and push the seal in up to the shoulder. Because of the low clearance between the rear of the head and firewall, and no line of sight to the work area, I don't want to blindly push the seal in.

According to volvo corporate standard drawing # 1052101 the camshaft end screw is M7 thread, 35mm long, coated with dry anti seize (volvo STD 1271.47).

So I bought 1 meter of M7 threaded rod from mcmaster-carr, some nuts and washers, and 1/8 steel bar stock. I'll cut the rod to length, and use a nut to bear down on the socket with help from a piece of the steel bar with a hole drilled in. I will probably weld a nut to the threaded rod so that I can hold it during the pressing operation, and then easily back it out from the camshaft after the seal is installed.

My 36mm socket is 50 mm tall, and M7 screws are too rare and expensive to buy boxes of 100 in different lengths simply to try out. I may never see an M7 thread again as long as I live.

 

Well, I managed to get this done and the leak fixed.

I got the cam sensor off by pushing the heater hoses out of the way.

The screw holding the rotor into the end of the camshaft has a 10mm head, m7 thread. I had bent and machined a pryout tool from a small screwdriver but didn't need it. The cam seal was completely out of its bore and fell off when I removed the rotor from the end of the camshaft.

When I went to slide the new seal over the end of the camshaft, it just went into the bore. I had to push it in square but did so with my fingers. At any rate I don't think it's loose.

The leak is gone now, and concerned by the camshaft seal being pushed out, I checked the flame trap and made sure the oil box was not clogged. If it comes out again, it's a problem for another day.