Hey guys I embarked on replacing the front crank shaft seal in my Auto TB42E over the weekend and it was a reasonable job. Following instructions from the other Patrol forum (an old thread from before I joined here) I was able to complete the task. There were a few discrepancies however with the instructions as I believe the instructions were for a manual, I have also added some additional ways to do things.
They were:
The harmonic balancer puller shown will not work for the Auto (well it did not on mine) as there were no bolt holes in the harmonic balancer to put the bolts through the arms of the puller. You will need the other variety of puller which is basically a big claw (the 150mm claw harmonic balancer puller you find at supercheap or autobarn will suffice provided you pull from behind the last ring on the balnacer as the AC condenser is in the way otherwise). It costs $50 from supercheap
When putting the seal in after you get it started with a hammer be sure to use a piece of flat timber to tap on to make sure the seal goes in straight and ends up perfectly flush with the housing.
To crack the crank shaft bolt was very difficult and I found the only really acceptable way (I was not game to crank the engine over to crack it) was to put the 27mm socket on the bolt attached to a breaker bar making sure the socket was on dead flush and belt the end of the socket with a hammer to shock the bolt off. I tried all other methods such as using an old belt twisted up with a screw driver and all the other mothods to stop the harmonic balancer turning but they all failed. The hammer method is defitly the way to go.
Another good idea if completing a job you have not attempted before is to have a box an a pen and jam the bolts into the box separated from the others and label them so that you do not lose and bolts and also so that you know what bolts go where.
I did take some pictures early on but they stopped once the light started to diminish. We finished at 6:30 on the Sunday night.
For anyone thinking of completing this job, it is a very do-able job for anyone, just allow yourself the weekend to complete the task. It took me around 8 hrs to complete plus trips back and forth to supercheap and autobarn as I encountered problems.
Anyways here is a link to this useful thread.
http://www.patrol4x4.com/forum/nissa...ne-seal-39902/