Speedo shaft seal removal

[WoodsWagon]

How the heck do I get this seal out? It's pressed in from the outside of the transmission case, so it should be able to be pulled out the way it came in. It's down in the well that the speedo cable threads into. It failed, so the cable was pumping gear oil up into the dash and dripping down on the drivers feet.

 

It's a 93 legacy 5mt that I swapped into a 94 Legacy turbo.

 

I tried hooking it out with bent piano wire, seal picks, then tried folding it in with sharpened awls, tried threading screws into it and pulled on them until they snapped, then tried melting it with glowing hot screwdrivers.

 

It's in an awkward spot under the firewall so I can't really see down into it.

 

I threaded a later speed sensor into it just to plug the hole because my friend needed to use the car. I'm tempted to convert the cluster to an electronic speedo and just eliminate the whole cable. What a flaming pain in the rump roast, I've already got 4 hours into this damn seal and it's worse than when I started.

[johnceggleston]

is it threaded?

 

what does the replacement look like?

[WoodsWagon]

It's not threaded, it honestly looks like an oversized valve stem seal that you press in upside down over the speedo shaft.

 

Like this; but coated in rubber instead of bare steel:

 

There's not much space between the shaft and the bore, and the seal is pressed 3/8" down from the top of the shaft, so you can't really get down in there too well. The firewall also blocks straight access to it with anything longer than about 3 inches.

[johnceggleston]

do you have a non-cable trans you can look at. i was wondering if the threads extended down below the oil seal. if so, even if the seal isn't threaded the threads may be in the housing and creating friction.

 

i have a 95 impreza, cable driven auto trans in my shed. i didn't spend much time looking at it since it is a spare, but i know what you are dealing with.

[WoodsWagon]

Cable vs non cable trans are the same, and I've got a stripped d/r case half here too that's the same style. The seal is pressed into a smooth bore, just like a crank or cam seal. The threaded portion is a bigger diameter bore, then it necks down to the bore that the seal presses into. The problem is accessing it through the narrow gap between the shaft and bore, and the fact that it's 3/4" down a hole in the side of the transmission, and you can't get a straight shot at it without pulling the transmission out of the car. It was really frusterating, one of the sparkplugs was seized in the head so I couldn't replace it, and this thing turned into a cluster************, and he had to drive it home with no speedo and three new spark plugs.

Edited March 24, 2011 by WoodsWagon

[johnceggleston]

did you ever resolve this?

[WoodsWagon]

We got the plug out finally, so it's got all 4 done and new wires all round.

 

We tried everything to get the seal out, I made all sorts of hooks, barbs, sleeves, nothing worked. So we punched the seal down to the bottom of the bore. That blocks the drain hole, but who knows it may not be a problem. Then we tried putting the new seal in, and I got it backwards in my head as to which direction it's supposed to go in. Well, we figured out I was wrong by looking at the other transmission before pushing it too far in, but then trashed it hooking it back out. Remember that bit about it being a clusterfudge? Yeah. So another seal is on order, we put the VSS back in because it works as a handy plug, and he drove it back out to the seacoast.

 

I've grafted an electric spedometer from a forester into an early legacy dash, and I'm working on getting it wired into the cluster. That way we'll avoid the whole cable issue and use the VSS that's being used as a plug now anyways. The cluster doesn't look half bad actually. When he comes back out this way next weekend, we'll press the new seal in, see if that works, and when it doesn't, put the VSS and converted cluster in.

[johnceggleston]

lordy, i'm glad it isn't mine to work on.

 

so the driving part of the speedo cable was above, outside of the seal? and has been removed? and then the speed sensor just threads in?

 

i have a cable driven auto trans and i want to swap it to a speed sensor.

[WoodsWagon]

Cable unthreads, there's a washer with a rubber cushion on it that you pull out, and the VSS threads right in. The seal I'm dealing with is buried down in the hole with the shaft sticking up through it. It sucks and if I had to deal with it again I would have just stuffed rags under the dash and told him to change them every once in a while.

[idosubaru]

and there is something protruding up through the hole too - like a slot that resides inside the cable head? i ask because - i assume it's obvious you can't just drill it out somehow?

 

what a mess.

 

i like your comment "and when it doesn't work...." :lol:

 

i feel your pain on these, this stuff makes you hate what you like sometimes.

[WoodsWagon]

So as a resolution to this, I installed my grafted electronic speedo head in the early legacy cable speedo dash, ran 2 wires out the firewall, and put the vss in where the cable went. It works great, computer's happy now so the car doesn't stall all the time, and you can tell how fast your going without gear oil dripping on your ankles.