There is one small but very important detail in the gearbox housing - the oil seal. If this small rubber ring goes bad, a fatal box failure can occur. What is the stuffing box intended for? How to know that it is worn out? Can I replace it myself? First things first.
What is the oil seal for?
The stuffing box is used in all vehicle connections where tight fastening of moving elements is necessary to prevent leakage of lubricating fluids. Simply put, in the gearbox, the drive seal on the Ford Focus 2 seals the junction of the box housing and the drive itself. If he is not there, all the oil will flow out of the box, and it will jam.
In addition to retaining lubricant, the oil seal prevents sand, dirt and water from entering the mount, which is also important. Mud mixed with transmission fluid circulating through the system can cause the box to overheat.
Signs of gland wear
The main and almost the only symptom of wear of the oil seal is oil leakage around it. If any, just in case you need to check with your hand, is it oil? Rarely, but it happens that these are drops of water (for example, after washing a car or riding through puddles).
After making sure that it is really oil, we additionally check the breather. It is designed to ventilate the gearbox and equalize the pressure inside it. The breather is located on the crankcase cover. When this element becomes clogged, air circulation is disturbed in the box, as a result of which the pressure rises, which pushes the oil through all kinds of connections.
When the conclusion becomes clear that the Ford Focus 2 drive seal is worn out, it's time to start replacing it.
Set of tools
As it turned out, the right-hand drive gland is structurally different from the left-hand drive gland "Ford Focus 2". The direction of the marks is different inside (on the right gland, it points to the left, and on the left - to the right). The last digit of the marking of the right gland is 4, and the left is 5. The right gland is black and the left is brown. If they are accidentally interchanged, there will be no tight junction, and oil will flow out.
To replace you will need:
- key at 13;
- socket wrench at 30;
- device for mounting (metal cylinder);
- hammer;
- mount;
- capacity for waste oil;
- screwdrivers;
- new oil seal and transmission fluid (if the oil from the box needs to be changed).
Replacement
We drive the car onto a flyover or pit. In general, it is optimal to replace the drive oil seals with the Ford Focus 2 on the lift, because it is easier to remove the wheels from the car on it. But since self-repair is most likely to be carried out in garage conditions, we install the car on the support after removing the wheels. Then we begin the disassembly:
- Drain the transmission fluid. Visually assess the need for its replacement.
- We unscrew the ball from the knuckle.
- We get the drive from the hub.
- Using the mount, remove the CV joint from the box.
- We get the old oil seal using any metal hook.
- The mounting location is cleaned with a clean rag from oil residues.
- When installing a new one, we use a little grease.
- Here we use a device for mounting. Carefully hit them in the gland until they are fully seated.
Build process:
- To insert the drive, the knuckle must be pressed outward.
- We place the outboard bearing all the way.
- We fasten its nuts.
- Insert the finger into the ball joint.
- Tighten the nut. At the same time, slightly tighten the ball so that the finger does not scroll.
Pour oil into the box:
- Remove the cover and unscrew the neck plug.
- Fill the transmission fluid with a large syringe.
- We check the level of the filled oil.
- We twist the cork, put the lid in place.
The process of replacing the Ford Focus 2 drive seal is quite simple. The spare part itself is inexpensive and is always on sale.