I know exactly whay you mean about small steps. I have friends that tell me that it doesn't make sense to fix this or that because you'll end up having to do it all over again (and buy new seals, rubber, etc.) when you get around to restoring it from the ground up. Whatever! I just want to get everything in safe working condition and drive it as such until I have more spare time to "restore" the truck.
So I've been thinking about this seal replacement job.. It seems like once I take the pan off I'm pretty much committed to doing the whole job. I can't get at the front or rear seal without the pan off. So what do you think is a reasonable expectation for replacing all the seals--4 hours?
The other thing I realized after reviewing my shop manual is that I can only replace the bottom half of the rear main rope seal. It says I'd have to take the whole engine out in order to remove the crank and replace the upper portion of the seal. I guess I just have to hope that the bottom portion of the seal is where it is leaking.
Also, with regard to the front seal, I'm not clear as to where the seal is. The book indicates that there is a leather seal mounted inside the timing cover. Isn't there another seal in there as well, which is why that speedi-sleeve is used? I'm also not sure if you have to take off any of the timing gears in order to replace the seal. (Sorry for the newbie type questions--I haven't had a change to get in there and see what it looks like yet).
