Front crank seal

[SquareOne]

Well, just replaced the front crank seal and this was a b!tch...at least for me. Has anyone had any issue with the seal being seized to the crank. It was like that damn blue shi#t between the seal ID and the crank locked down tight.

Literally positioned the tool in 2 different spots and still pulled the damn screws through the seal....twice! Either I'm that damn ignorant on how to use this tool, or this seal was just being a mofo! Ended up having to pry the outer lip flat (carefully with a flat screwdriver and wood against the housing since it's aluminum), then used a little heat with a needle nosed grip pliers in order to break it free from the damn crank. Pried against the crank nose with a bar through the pliers so nothing was touched on the housing. Once it broke free, it was just a matter of plenty patience and working a 1/4 of the seal at a time until it was all the way off... seriously wtf!?

- Before I removed the old seal, I measured the depth it was set at. It was about 4.6-4.7mm from the face of the bore. The cummins procedure with the 25mm spacers on the tool sets the seal flush with the housing bore. I ended up pushing it back to the original position using a second set of spacers that came with the tool I had (now it's about 5-5.2mm deep all the way around) Hopefully it all goes well once its back together, otherwise it's take 2!