Urgent: Manual valve(shifter) seal M50

[russiankid]

I apologize in advance for making threads, but I need help. I keep replacing the seal on the manual valve body or shifter because everytime I install the new seal, the inner lip on the seal gets caught on the square edges of the shaft and pushes the seal outward. This is the 4th seal that I am on and this time I am trying a new approach. I had an idea of making some type of sleeve that would fit inside the seal and go over the shaft so the inner lip would stay aligned correctly, but that didn't turn out to be the way I planned.

So now I am stuck. I have the old seal out, but I cannot get the new seal in correctly. How am I suppose to get in correctly? Is there a special tool other than the BMW tool to get it in?

Thanks.

[ryan roopnarine]

are you following the bentley procedure or the bmw electronic repair manual procedure? could you take a picture for us? i thought that your other thread said that you accomplished this already.

[russiankid]

I did, but today I saw that the seal is screwed up.

[ryan roopnarine]

so you're trying to get the seal on over the shifter shaft? i take it you didn't take the valvebody out to replace this seal? if that is the case, did you lubricate the seal with vaseline or atf before you tried to drive it on?

[russiankid]

so you're trying to get the seal on over the shifter shaft? i take it you didn't take the valvebody out to replace this seal? if that is the case, did you lubricate the seal with vaseline or atf before you tried to drive it on?

Yes I did lubricate the seal. I just picked up a copper pipe from Lowes that is slightly bigger than the shaft. I will make a sleeve out of it and hopefully it will do the trick.

[russiankid]

I could not get a picture of the seal because its hard to see. When the seal is out of the transmission, the inner lip faces inward if you place the seal the way it would be in the car. Once you start to press it in, the seal pushes itself outward(towards the outside of the transmission).

My sleeve idea did not work. So I used some petroleum jelly and drove it in the best I could. It looks to be squared away, but the previous one looked fine too until it started to leak. If this one leaks I will just have to drop the sump and remove the valve body.

I also checked the fluid and had to add half a quart of ATF. This is not that bad considering I did a filter and fluid change a month ago and I have not added any fluid since.

[russiankid]

The seal still leaks. I guess I will wait till it leaks a lot and I will pull the oil sump and remove the shaft. Is it possible to remove the shaft from inside of the transmission or do I have to lower the transmission?

[bubba966]

Have you been putting the seal in the right way? Are you sure it's not supposed to be facing the other way?

[russiankid]

I am pretty sure I have been putting the seal in correctly because of the way the seal is. The inner lip on the seal faces towards the inside of the seal, and when I slide it over the shaft the sharp edges on the shaft cause it to flip the opposite direction. I have tried using tape, making a sleeve, nothing works.

I am trying to find the BMW tool with the part number 24 5 200 but without any luck. I looked at the manual about removing the shaft and it looks like it slides outward away from the transmission. So this means I would have to lower the transmission.

[bubba966]

If the shaft it causing the seal to flip to the opposite direction would trying to put it in the wrong direction cause it to flip over to the proper way? Without seeing the seal/shaft etc. I can't say much else as I don't know what's exactly going on. But trying to put the seal on wrong might work if it flips itself over upon insertion.

[russiankid]

There isn't a way to put it in wrong because the lip is pretty sturdy. I will most likely be removing the shaft to get this job done, just not now. It leaks out 1/2 a quart of fluid, which won't harm the transmission. After the 1/2 quart of fluid leaking out, it doesn't leak anymore because the fluid level is under the seal.

[Ross]

Valve stem seals come with a little sleeve to cover the keeper groove while installing.
Maybe an engine builder would have a few around and one might fit ??
Or try wrapping a turn or two of some oily paper around the shaft.

[russiankid]

Thanks for the tip. Right now for some reason the seal stopped leaking. I know that the shaft moves in an out a few millimeters when you select the gear. Maybe a miracle happened and the part of the seal that flipped out flipped back in when the shaft moved?

If that is not the case, I will use two layers of heat shrink tubing followed by some type of grease. It would be the same effect as I were to use oily paper, instead here the tubing won't rip because the seal will have to be driven in with the paper on the shaft. then the paper will be taken out.