The V8 Owners Forum -

I have a very early Range Rover V8 with a rope seal rear main bearing seal. Its a freshly rebuilt engine, but I think the chap who built it didnt get the rear rope seal correctly fitted so its literally pouring oil from the rear. I have heard tell that its possible to replace the rear top seal with the engine in situ using a tool called a chinese finger to pull the old seal out and feed the new one in. Has anyone managed this and if so, what was the job like and the end result please? thanks Andrew

I owned one of these ancient engines and rebuilt it. You can replace the half of the rope that is in the main bearing cap. IMO the other half that is in the block is pretty much mission impossible. You need to remove the crank to fit the rope seal properly.

thanks for the reply. I suspected that the top part of the seal is nigh on impossible, although I am told it has been done in period quite regularly. Given that the seal should be properly worked into position with a round former it would be impossible to do that. Of course the lower half is fine by dropping the cap off. I really don't want to take this engine out, its not long been back in!