Had a leak coming from the oil pan and/or rear main seal on a SC I recently bought. I dropped the pan and cleaned it up nice and tidy...didn"t find anything out of the ordinary. I looked up into the engine innards and that engine looks as if it were hot tanked yesterday...remarkably clean. I looked the rear main seal housing over and it all looked fine and I noticed somebody had used some blue silicone when they installed it. Somebody has been inside this engine or at least replaced the rear seal in the recent past.

OK...all seems fine until I start putting the bolts back in. I never noticed anything wrong when I removed them......but the the middle one on the FRONT main seal housing is quite obviously stripped. GRRRRRR!

No, I don"t want to have to down the thing in order to replace that seal and housing.....nothing wrong with the seal anyway.

Is it possible to use a self tapping bolt/machine screw that is just the least bit larger around than the original and make a quick fix of this? Yes, I know sooner or later the aluminum seal housing will have to be replaced. I"d rather it be later than sooner. Yes, I also know those aluminum housings get screwed by overzealous morons that think a little tighter is better...who the moron was before me I don"t know, I"m just stuck with the mess. And no....I don"t want prove what a moron I am by making things worse.....but I think a self tapping bolt/machine screw in the soft aluminum housing is feasible....but I want your opinions.

You might want to try installing a helicoil.

Assuming this is the bolt that threads into the middle of that potmetal seal retainer . . . I'd think a better fix than oversize would be a helicoil. It would take some care (chock the wheels on your creeper) to do it properly from beneath. I'm having a gray moment and can't remember if you can pull that retainer down with the motor together or not to get it on a bench and make a better job of it. If you can, you'll still want new gaskets fro the top of it and the felt seals for the ends.

I thought about a helicoil and not ever having had to remove one these caps or whatever the proper term is....I don't know if it will come out by itself or the whole nine yards has to come with it.

I do know that the center hole is sort of a 'blind' hole and just a place to allow the pan to snug against the gasket...unlike those that screw into the block.

Scotty...please send me an email at: Jumptrap at windstream dot net. and in the subject line let me know who it's from. I want to ask you some questions.

Ping.

Can't remember the bolt size, but would guess 5/16?? Maybe there is a metric size bolt that would be fractionally larger.
Option B would be a screw/ bolt with sheetmetal type threads the same as the 5/16 bolt.
Option C is to see how much deeper the threaded hole is than the bolt is long & get a 1/4 or 3/8 inch longer bolt & go real easy tightening.

The best solution is to install a 5/16 NC Helicoil (or your favorite brand) insert and then install a stud in that hole. Using a stud will eliminate the problem of someone using too long a cap screw in that hole and destroying the threads again.

I don't think you can get that bottom seal retainer out with the flywheel attached to the crank. I just took my A apart after separating it from the rest of the tractor and removing the flywheel. There are two bolts that hold the two bearing seal retainer halves together and they go in from the top if I remember right. Plus there are several bolts that hold it on and I am not sure if there is enough clearance with the flywheel to get them out. Probably want to make repairs in place. I like the helicoil solution as that will help prevent stripping out that soft metal in the future. Roger

My gray moment is gettin' darker (or is that lighter?) but is still somewhat gray. I think you're right, Roger, on the rear seal retainer, that perhaps the split cap on the back may thread into the retainer. But for the front (which isn't the one that is leaking but IS the one that is stripped out), I don't believe there's anything holding it to the crankcase except the two bolts that run up through the ends, so it may be possible to pry it out to be cleaned up and fixed on the bench.

(quoted from post at 21:29:13 12/14/09) My gray moment is gettin' darker (or is that lighter?) but is still somewhat gray. I think you're right, Roger, on the rear seal retainer, that perhaps the split cap on the back may thread into the retainer. But for the front (which isn't the one that is leaking but IS the one that is stripped out), I don't believe there's anything holding it to the crankcase except the two bolts that run up through the ends, so it may be possible to pry it out to be cleaned up and fixed on the bench.

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Those spacer blocks have horizontal bolts besides the vertical ones through the pan. They go through the front cover in the front one and the rear seal retainer in the back.

It is an easy job to put Helicoil inserts in them even when they are installed in the engine.

Sorry, I was guess I was concentrating on him talking about the rear seal and failed to see the BOLD letters saying it was the front one that was stripped out. I just looked at mine on the bench and it is held in by the pan bolts and three bolts on the timing gear cover. So if you take those out the piece just slides out. There is the timing cover gasket and two small gaskets to deal with though. Roger