Right had the crank seal done in my efi xr3i yesterday, it was the gearbox side.

I had the garage do it as I havnt the time or a garage and no way im doing it in this weather!

He charged me £230 to do it but that included resealing and balancing front wheels too.

I thought I could of done it in 3-4 hours and personally id of just lifted the engine out and done it that way as you can have engine out in an hour or so and could of changed it on the crane or even wiggled the box out and done it like that.

He decided to strip everything of the bottom gbox cradle, anti roll bar etc and did it that way it took him nearly 2 days with a ramp!!

How would you of done it?

 

engine out the top leave gearbag in the car leave on engine crane flywheel off change seal refitting is the reverse of the removal procedure

 

Thats what I thought so he's made abit of a meal of it then really

 

It shouldn't take 2 days to do that job on a mk4 Escort, which ever way you do it.

Unless every bolt was seized/broken off etc

Even if car has the crappy ABS with belts round the driveshafts which does slow down the job taking a gearbox out of a mk4..but not that much!

If taking just the box out, taking the complete ARB/gearbox cradle out takes no time at all really (as long as all the bolts come out ok,not forgetting it's an old car) it's only a few (mainly) 17mm nuts & bolts.

 

Box/cradle/arb off in an hour and that's on a driveway. 1hr max to piss about getting flywheel and seal off/on. Another hour to get everything back in and 10mins for topping up gbox oil. Its a half day job at best.

 

He did clean all the box up inside and clutch etc as everything was covered in oil. Its all been off before so nothings broke or seized.

He either didn't really know what he was doing (claimed he's had 4 3is and 2 rs's before) or had nothing else on me thinks

 

Whichever way, £230 doesn't sound too bad does it? Or are you not fussed about the price, just the way he did it? Did he quote it?

 

Im not to bothered about the cost really although originally he quoted £180 all in but he did a few little extras and cleaning the clutch etc so I suppose it wasn't bad really.

Just a pain as the seal was only a tenner!

He just seemed to make a big job of it that's all, but on the other hand if I didbnt have it done id have to replace the clutch that's only done 250 miles so not too bad I suppose

 

I'd be more pissed off at someone fitting a clutch 250 miles ago and not noticing the leaking main seal rather than moan about the bloke that worked 2 days for £230

 

Clutch was fitted about 3 years ago and its sat since and only started to leak 2 weeks ago when I taxed it

 

I fitted the clutch and seal wasn't leaking but as I had engine out I should of really changed it

 

Easy to be clever after the event, at least it's sorted.

 

Great its leaking again!!

 

Is it defo that seal. Its not the sump gasket is it. Take the car back.

I hate oil leaks lol.

 

I did say it was probably the sump gasket in your other post
Unfortunately I went through the same experience you've now gone through hence the advice

 

I used to hate those old CVH rubber sump gaskets, they always leaked.

 

There's a big thread somewhere in the RS Turbo room about sump gaskets and the best way to seal them, I always find fitting them dry (no sealant) works best.

But as for £230 to do the job that's a fair price IMO, roughly 4.5 hours labour at £50 p/h is probably about average for a garage.... even if it did take two days?! lol

 

Weirdly, if you have the block on the bench upside down and fit it dry, never seem to get a prob, but sometimes doing the same in situ bloody things would split!

Tried all sorts, evo stick them to the block, sealer, spray glue them onto the block

 

I put mine up in the air today with a view to changing the crank seal. I'm taking the box out.

 

Well the old crank seal was defiantly leaking had 2 mechanics look at it before hand nd seen the old seal it was fooked.

Its either he hasn't done it properly or its the sump, even though the sump gasket is less then 2000 miles old

Either way its going back!!!

 

When the box was out of my cossie when I changed the clutch I had the flywheel refaced. So I wiped all the crap off the back of engine. refitted it all to find I had a oil leak. I'd wiped the sealer from the end of the sump gasket when cleaning so I degreased and wiped some more in job done.

And yes the cvh sump gaskets are a pain to seal.

 

Sooo if it is the sump whats the best way to seal them?

 

A genuine ford gasket and there white sealer. and everything fully degreased and dry.

 

This is the 'Ford' way (from cvh engine in Escort '91 workshop manuals on ETIS)

Uses self-made studs screwed in the block to locate the gasket.

 

I'll get the garage to do it as if it leaks again its their problem