So, the rear main seal has officially taken a turn for the worst on my 94 3.0. Its been 'seeping' since I bought it, but today while flushing the coolant I noticed the first drips on the ground and all over the oil pan. When I bought the rig, I was quoted $900 and $1200 to fix it from two different places. Drives me crazy to think a $12 seal could cost a grand to fix.

Has anyone here done this themselves? I know the trans has to be dropped out of the way (I've never done this). How many hours of work am I looking at, and if I'm taking the time to do this, how much work would a M/T conversion add?

So, yea. If you have never dropped a tranny then I strongly recommend you allow someone to do it for you. If this were your project car, I would say, go for it and get some experience. This sounds like your daily driver.

It takes tools and knowledge to do this. And yea, the 900 dollars is the labor and experience.

I've done loads of work on this truck. Unfortunately yes, it is my daily driver, but its also a project truck. I've been slowly but surely bringing it back to its former glory. Transmissions are one thing I've never done though. I have tools, I have some experience, and I have a small bank account, so I am more or less forced into doing it myself.

Dropping the transmission itself takes an experienced man about 20 minutes.

I will disagree with this statement to an extent.

A M/T with a two post lift with a shop complete with all air tools I need....about a half hour

An auto trans with only a jack and stands and a creeper(maybe, I'm my case a door panel) with hand tools, not air tools and never droping an auto before....~6hours if you take no breaks at all and have a step by step guide and a second person

I know I just did one today in the woods. Their not fun and weigh a hell of a lot. And I'm an ase tech that knows what I'm doing around a car/truck

So please do not try and mislead members that's its a 20 minute job for an auto trans in the drive way.....

That's what I was thinking of .. manual transmission... 20 .. 30 minutes, whatever.

And I wasn't being misleading.

Roger that. ....I think the op has a auto trans, as he asked about the manual conversion at the end of his post.

Manual transmissions are much much easier then autos....sorry I can't help with the auto to manual trans swap info, as I have never done it. But am sure lots of members here have.

Drive lines, wiring, cooler lines, cross member removal, bell housing bolts, torque converter bolts, and shifter plus the other crap i cant think of off the top of my head in 20 min.

As stated above, don't mislead people. Someone that is over confident could read that and think it's an easy job. Then get in over his head, and put his rig into more downtime than need be.

OP: maybe you have a slightly more inclined mechanic friend. It can be done in a weekend with some help. A day with some good help. Unfortunately rear main seals are one of the worst to replace on any vehicle. If you do decide to do it yourself, just take your time and do it right.

As a backyard mechanic, I would plan on a weekend

^ That would be my time estimate if everything went smooth.

I would also recommend renting a transmission jack. Places 'round here rent them for about $30 a day. Those things are HEAVY.

I was only thinking of a manual transmission, and I said for "an experienced man" ...!

I wasn't being misleading!

So ozzy, if you have a M/T, you know an "experienced shop" shouldn't charge more than 30 minutes to drop the transmission, and 30 minutes to re-install it. The rest of the labor time should only account for replacing the rear main seal. ... but if you do in fact have an automatic transmission ... the labor time is much, much longer..

.. or am I being misleading once again?

Gee, I thought SUBTEGRAL was an expert.

I've NEVER said anything about being an expert, but I was definitely right in what I said.

And also Swifty, I thought you just said you put me on "ignore mode" ... ?

I do have an auto in there right now and I figured it would take much more than half hour for removal. I have a M/T sitting in the garage waiting to be rebuilt, along with the T-case, clutch assembly, shifters, pedals, etc. Buddy of mine has a transmission jack I can borrow. Plan was to rebuild everything on the M/T this winter and attack the removal of the auto when its warm (if the leaking lets me wait that long). Seems like once the auto is out, switching in a M/T should be relatively simple. I'll just plan on a long weekend to do it. Everything on this rig takes twice as long as its supposed to thanks to uncooperative bolts and such, so I'd consider it a success to finish in two days.

One thing I'm unclear about is if I need a different rear drive shaft? I've read that you can do it with the original from the auto, but that the splines only seat partially. Anyone have any advice on that?

Frozen bolts are the biggest PITA, I hate rust and completely understand.

Im no help on the drive shaft though...sorry, But was under the impression that they were the same length. Can you measure your current shaft and tell us how long it is, then some one with a manual can measure and you can compare.

And lets keep this on topic ozzys sake.