Hi, I'm Wade from Thoroughbred Diesel. And today we're going to show you the Merchant
Automotive front crank seal installer for the 2001 to current Duramax motors.
Merchant Automotive came out with a little bit better mouse trap in their front crank seal
installer. In fact, they make several different seal installers, but the front crank seal for
the Duramax motors is the one that we're going to talk about today. Now, one thing that really
makes this a desirable tool for you guys that are building several Duramax motors in your shop is
this is a much more cost-effective tool for you to buy. I'm not going to call out any names of
other manufacturers that make this, but this one's going to save you some money. And it's going to
do as many motors as you can possibly pump out. You're not going to wear this thing. You're not
going to wear this seal installer out. So let's just go through the specifics of it here.
So the Merchant seal installer, it fits the front Duramax crank seal perfectly there. So
the alignment is really good. The seals on these Duramax is why it's so important to get the depth
correct on these, is because it's a little bit different seal. On a crank seal, usually
you've got a ceiling surface on the cranks. Now these are a little bit different. You've got
an inner metal ring here. On the Duramax, is the oil pump drive gear is at a certain depth
here. So what we're wanting to avoid is we're wanting to avoid getting the seal in too far,
which would put metal to metal contact between this seal and that oil pump drive gear.
And that's where the Merchant Automotive seal installer comes in. It will set the
depth on this perfectly to where you won't get this too deep inside,
too deep in the cover. And it's recessed to go over the roll pins. Or if you key your crank,
it will go over the key in the crank. In fact, if you double key your crank, for whatever reason,
it's going to accept that as well. But yeah, it lines up and it sets the depth just perfectly
because it rides against the end of the cranks. Now at the end of the cranks, now that's going to
put the seal depth almost perfect. So, just show you how to install one of these. I like
to set the seal inside there and you can totally put the tool on at this time and you can totally
drive this thing right on home, if you want to. What I like to do is I'd just like to use
the crank bolt and I like to press it in using the crank bolt or the harmonic balancer bolt,
excuse me. I'll just get it started with it. A couple of turns so that I know that it's going
good and even. You can go ahead and run it all the way in, or you can take the hammer and seat it,
which is what we'll do. So we show you the functionality of it both ways.
So once got it started, you can finish it up with a hammer and listen for that tone change
as it seats here. So, there you heard the tone change there. So our seal is completely seated.
If you wanted to check that you can totally run your bolt in and check it, check your depth there
to make sure that you're right there. If you have a question about the difference in the sound. So
pretty foolproof, it's only going to go so far. And that is the beauty of this tool from the guys
at Merchant. So I'm Wade from Thoroughbred Diesel. Just wanted to show you a nice tool to have in
your shop for you guys that are building Duramax motors. If you have a question about this tool or
any of our other Merchant Automotive products, just give us a call. Definitely suggest you get
this. Going to save you guys some money, you guys that are mechanics, going to save you a little bit
of money. Work well, great product to have. Any questions about this, or any of our other
installation videos, just give us a call. Like and subscribe to our
channel and thank you to the guys at Merchant Automotive for making a great product.