Volvo Maintenance Hints for 7xx/9xx - Bill Garland's Nuclear ...

housings that stop you from pushing it too far and make it square to the centerline of the
crank. Not on Volvos. (I did the same dumb thing on the front frank seal of a friend's 240).
Also, the end of the crank will have some baked on oil and crud on it except for the thin
shiny ring where the old seal was riding on it. I recommend that you clean that stuff off
(carefully, so as not to nick the crank) maybe with some super fine sandpaper or fine
Scotchbrite or similar (?). Make sure that the seal is facing the right way when you put it
in. Call me paranoid, but when I replace a seal I always wipe the outside of it with a thin
coat of indian head gasket shellack to keep it from weeping around the housing. the book
recommends grease for the same purpose. Regardless, ALWAYS coat the lip of the seal
(the part that rides on the crank) with some grease to keep it from burning on the crank
right after you start it up. [Don Foster] Install your new seal flush or about 1/16"-1/8"
deeper. If you see very little wear on the crank, then you can install it at normal depth, i.
e., flush. [Tip] To keep the seal carrier bolts from backing out and ruining your starter, use
Loctite threadlock when reinstalling these bolts. That's not a bad idea for the flywheel
bolts as well.If you are installing the Viton gray seal, see the notes above regarding using
the seal shipping carrier to make sure the lips are correctly placed. Getting the tranny
mated back to the engine was hard for me. I could get it up to about an inch and no
further: much pain here. Finally figured out that the torque converter was not fully seated
back into the transmission. The shaft has two slots into which the torque converter must
engage in order to engage the cogs driving the oil pump inside the transmission. If the
face of the torque converter (the face that bolts to the flywheel/flex plate) is flush with the
edge of the bell housing, it's not in far enough. you have to slide it out then turn it a bit
and then try to shove it back into the tranny shaft. Took me a while to do this. Place
direct, even pressure on the torque converter until you feel it drop. When it's right, the
face of the converter should be set back inside the bell housing about an inch or so from
the edge of the bellhousing that mates to the block. You may have to turn the tranny face
up and rotate the torque converter until it engages and drops an inch. This is important,
since if you manage to install it with the converter out of place, your transmission pump
will not engage. I recommend that you get the tranny completely flush with the engine
before attempting to put the flywheel bolts in. I make those the last thing I do when
replacing a tranny as they're one of the first things I take out when removing it. [Jerry
Andersch] When the torque converter is properly seated it should sit 1/2" below the bell
housing flange. If it's flush with it, it's not seated all the way. With the tranny slightly
angled up (bell housing higher than the tail) work the TC back and forth until it seats,
sliding down 1/2" of so below the bell housing flange. When installing the tranny make
sure the BH is slightly higher as you move the box into place, so the TC does not slide
forward and out of place. Bolting the autobox into place with the TC not properly seated
can damage the transmission. Putting everything else back on and back together is pretty
straightforward (heard that before, huh?). During the pull-down I put all the bolts into a
single can. Mistake! Many of the fasteners used are the same diameter but slightly
different lengths: keep them seperate as you take it apart and you won't have to switch
bolts around when they bottom out in the wrong holes during the reassembly.
4. After all this work and my reassembly, mine seemed to continue to leak for a day or so
after I put in the new seal. I was sick about it during the time it was leaking. It stopped,
though after a bit of driving and has been tight ever since. Looking back, I'm not sure if
the oil that I saw on the driveway was really leaking past the new seal while it was getting
introduced to the crank OR if it was just some residue oil from before the replacement.