I’m a newbie replacing my rear main seal in my 2001 Jeep Cherokee sport. I’m almost done taking it apart but I can’t take off my rear main bearing cap. I figured once the scews were out it would just fall off but it won’t budge.
Is it safe to just start hammering away. My manuals just say “remove main bearing cap.” Is there a trick? How hard should it be to pull it out?
It’s not going to fall out. You can either give it a few pops on the side with a soft hammer or a hammer handle…or stick a screwdriver in one of the bolt holes and rock it back and forth. Don’t scratch the bearing shell and pay attention to which side the bearing tongue is on. Look up main bearing torque when reinstalling and pay attention to which oil or lube matches which torque…they’re different.
What he said. It’s even okay to use a steel hammer, just keep in mind you’re tapping it loose rather than pounding it. To clarify, tap it on the wide surface, not the narrow one.
The bearing cap is held in place with dowels. To remove the cap, unscrew the main bearing cap bolts and pull them clear of the block but leave them in the bearing cap. Pinch the two bolts together and rock in the “east-west” direction while pulling down. It’ll break free after a few seconds of this.
I suppose you could use a screwdriver, but in my opinion using the bolts is a better idea, beacuse they’re already there and less likely to scratch the crankshaft journal if you slip.
I work for a major automaker and we have plastic dowels to pull main caps, but R&D techs just tend to use the bolts…
I hammered it lightly while pulling down with the pliers for about ten minutes and it eventually fell off. It took me about 30 minutes to punch out the top half of the seal. This is day 4 so I was glad to be almost done taking everything apart. All I had left was to take the bottom half of the seal out of the bottom half of the cap. Man this thing is stuck in there pretty good. What does the manual say? Pry it out with a small screwdriver? OK. Pry, pry, pry, slip…
I now have 2 dings in the bottom half of my rear main bearing. Not being an expert, I don’t know for sure they are bad but I’m not feeling good about it. I tried to find online images to compare but I haven’t had any luck. I don’t have a camera to post a pic but I guess I’ll take it to a parts store and have someone look at it.
So assuming the worst and its bad, does that mean I have to replace all 7 of my main bearings top and bottom? Is it possible to replace just one? How about just the one half I ruined? Anyway to sand down and buff out the dings?
For future reference, the thing to do is remove the bearing from the bearing cap (or block) and reinstall it later.
You don’t have to replace the whole set, however both top and bottom should be replaced on any given journal. The trick will be can you buy anything less than a whole set.
If these are little dings on the surface that abuts the crankshaft journal, I don’t think there’s much to worry about. If there’s a raised bit around the ding, carefully cut it off or file/sand it down, avoiding removing any more material than necessary.
I work for a major automaker, and replacing one half of a bearing shell is an acceptable practice. I don’t know about Jeep vehicles, but we use color-coded bearing shells; the color indicates bearing thickness (which translates to oil clearance to the crank journal). I suspect you will be able to purchase one bearing shell from a dealership; if you’re not sure if the bearing is coded for thickness, I would call the parts department and ask for for price and availability… if there’s more than one bearing available they’ll tell you.
Learn something every day.