Hi everyone, In the spirit of trying to be helpful I'm going to add how I recently changed my Shift shaft seal.
I did it in a relatively easy way.
Hopefully any one else who tries this will be appreciative.
I noticed the new seal was constructed with a thin metal cup shape that gasket material was fused with that wrapped around the shaft.
I felt I should be able to carefully pierce the metal and bend the cup to release pressure from the outside portion to help the seal be removed easily.
I will add a picture of the tools I used.
After getting my car up on four jack stands in my garage I lay with my feet out the passenger side to be in position to work this from the drivers side of the trany.
After disconnecting the bolt on top as has previously been discussed I set the linkage off to the passenger side of the top of the trany.
I used a 90 degree pick to remove gasket material from under the top portion of the seal in order to make room for the bending of the metal cup after piercing.
There is just enough room on top, not the sides to do this due to how the rear flange is positioned.
I used one of my old worn out long slender flat tip screwdrivers and ground that tip to a point.
then with a lighter ball peen hammer I positioned it towards the top of the seal being careful to not be too close to the face of where seal fits against the trany.
I also kept in mind the depth of the seal cup from looking at the new one so as to not damage the back of the trany lip that the new seal will back into.
By lightly tapping the screw driver I pierced the metal cup.(it really didn't take much pressure with the hammer).
I twisted a bit with the remaining flat part on the tip to create a hole.
I then used a better same length slender screw driver to elongate the hole side to side then leveraged the screw driver pulling the top arch of the seal down relieving the pressure off the circumference of the seal.
There isn't enough room going straight in to wiggle out the seal therefore...
I used the 90 degree bent combination flat tip/cross point screw driver and worked in the flat tip part of it into the hole and with plenty of room working from the side, it took only three good side to side movements and the seal just dropped off.
I didn't have to drop the trany mount cross brace nor pull the whole linkage!
I hope this helps someone.
![20240427_090443.jpg 20240427_090443.jpg](https://www.s197forum.com/data/attachments/72/72895-4b48db90500196f6fae7f454a89379bf.jpg)