Massey 245 Perkins diesel rear main leak... need help!!!

MFnewbie

Member
Greetings All,

I replaced the rear main on my MF 245, got it all back together, fired it up and drip, drip, drip, oil from the forward weep hole closet to rear of engine, When I was replacing the rear main seal in the bell housing behind the flywheel, I noticed two apprx 3/4" diameter holes, one was about 2" on top of the other lower one. These are located on lower portion of the bell housing wall that separates the clutch chamber from the engine block. The upper hole was open but the lower one had dried RTV in it as if someone tried to seal it. I noticed oil did glug out of the lower hole when I was hand turning the crank (see oil pooled in bottom, which is actually covering the lower hole). My question is should one or both of the holes be sealed? My repair manual has no mention or reference to these holes. Thanks in advance, hopefully the attached pic will help to explain the situation.

Thanks,
Greg A
mvphoto47871.jpg
 
Hello Greg, those holes in the adaptor plate are both supposed to be clear and allow any oil loss from the sump rear cork gasket to exit the rear engine/bell-housing area via the front drain hole fitted with the split pin. I'd hazard a guess and say there is probably nothing wrong with your rear main seal. The oil is possibly coming from the rear sump cork gasket. Have a good look at the area around your rear main and see if there is in fact, any fresh traces of oil. You may find the rear shoulder of the crank as well as the front face of the flywheel are dry. If this is the case, you will need to drop the sump down and fit a sump gasket set. A genuine MF or Perkins manual will help you fit the gasket set correctly.
 
(quoted from post at 22:50:09 01/16/20) Hello Greg, those holes in the adaptor plate are both supposed to be clear and allow any oil loss from the sump rear cork gasket to exit the rear engine/bell-housing area via the front drain hole fitted with the split pin. I'd hazard a guess and say there is probably nothing wrong with your rear main seal. The oil is possibly coming from the rear sump cork gasket. Have a good look at the area around your rear main and see if there is in fact, any fresh traces of oil. You may find the rear shoulder of the crank as well as the front face of the flywheel are dry. If this is the case, you will need to drop the sump down and fit a sump gasket set. A genuine MF or Perkins manual will help you fit the gasket set correctly.

Thanks Masseynut for your reply. I've talked with 2 other repair techs... 1 said the holes need to be open, the other told me to seal the lower one. You are the tie breaker so I will leave them open. It only makes sense that they are there for reason. I think you also correctly diagnosed the problem of the sump gasket set. I had the sump dropped while doing other work, and the new gasket set did not come with a rear seal, only the main pan seal. I was in a time crunch and really needed to get the project finished, so I used the old seal with some RTV. I'm sure in hind sight I should've stopped, ordered the rear sump seal, and done it correct. There was a good 3 or 4 hours of run time before the leak showed up, so I thought I lucked out on using the old seal. I also did what you suggested looking for an oil trail from rear main (used UV dye and light), and saw no trace of oil, which more than likely confirms your very educated guess. I'm waiting on a clutch/pto shaft alignment tool now anyway, so I will go ahead and order new sump seals and hopefully get it all back together soon. I will let you know if that was the problem. Thanks again, and take care Greg A.
 
Hello again Masseynut, I wanted to update you my progress. I finally got everything back together after my 2nd split (thinking my rear main seal job wasn't done correctly) based on your suggestion that the leak was actually from the rear sump gasket. I did replace those 2 gaskets and as stated got everything back together. I was going to start it up for a shake down run. It started relatively easily after priming a few pumps from the left pump. I pulled it forward slightly but noticed some slight forward creep even with the clutch (which is about 90% new) fully depressed. It did not do this after my first split. Anyway, it died after running about 45 seconds and has yet to start since. I've bled air out of the injector pump, which usually works after the lines have been partially drained from other times I've worked on it. I just wondered if you had anymore insight you could offer from my stated description. Is it possible I did something wrong when joining it back together? It went back together pretty smoothly and I did use an alignment shaft and guide rods after removing and re-installing the clutch. I was going to replace the clutch, but it actually looked as good a new one making me think it had been replaced not long before I purchased the tractor. Anyway should I loosen the fitting nuts at the injectors and bleed from there, or do you have another suggestion I should try. Sincere Thanks,
Greg A.
 
Update to the update... got it started after sitting overnight. Ran it for about 45 min at medium rpm no leaks anywhere, so feeling good about the rear main and sump seals. Only problem is clutch is different after rejoining the two halves. I did not take the clutch apart only inspected and aired it off. Condition wise it seemed to be almost new. I used a shaft alignment tool and guide rods to get it back together, and other than a lot of wiggling and turning flywheel back and forth it did go back together seemingly without resistance. So the clutch needs depressed for a good3 seconds now before you can shift. The peddle feels stiffer (not as much travel) than before. Adjusting clutches not my strong suit, but willing to learn and hoping that is all it is. Thanks again for anyone that can offer some insight. Greg A MFnewbie
 

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