Just wondering - those of you who have replaced the RMS; did you bother removing the aluminum carrier that it sits in? Or just pry out the seal and leave the carrier in place?

Reason I ask, is I did this on a '96 BMW a few years ago, and never got the carrier sealed to the block correctly, ended up with a leak where there wasn't any before. I'm dubious that I can reseal the carrier correctly in the corners, where it meets the pan and block, since there's already going to be a very thin layer of dried silicone in that corner joint, and I don't think that silicone sticks to itself very well. I would bet that this was done at the factory at the same time the oil pan is sealed.

 

i always pull the plate when doing the rear main seal and I always apply some rtv in the galleries of the plate so i can't attest to if it would leak if you didn't seal up the galleries but it would be best to do it the hard way and just pull the plate, the only thing that sucks is that you gotta pull the oil pan to get the plate off

 

I finally got the seal out, didn't remove the carrier. It was in there incredibly tight - after bending several screwdrivers, I finally had a gash large enough to get a hook type seal remover in there. Miraculously, there was no damage to either the carrier or the crankshaft. The new one went in surprisingly easy - I put a thin layer of oil on the outside and was able to push it in flush by hand, the rest of the way with a brass drift and hammer.

I just spent two frustrating hours trying to get the transmission back in, working alone with the gear box on a modified floor jack. After spewing all the obscenities I know, I finally gave up, to regroup and try it again.