Output shaft seal orientation

[Tom.]

So this is my 3rd attempt in 2 weeks at replacing this seal. Each time I've bought it from the local dealer, so I know it's not the quality of the seal, it's obviously an error on my part. I also did the shift shaft seal (only took me two times) so that's not the culprit.

The previous owner was an idiot so I'm not even sure if these are the right parts? It seems like I have a pretty good mix of early model stuff on my late model car, so who knows?

I'm starting to second guess the way that the seal fits into the groove. When I removed the seal the first time, the spring side was inside, so that's the way I've tried installing the new seal the past two times. Every picture I look at seems to verify this is the right way, but I'm not 100% sure anymore.

Secondly, the output flange has some sort of groove in it that almost looks like an o-ring should slip onto the flange? But if I orient the seal spring side OUT, then it feels like it locks into that groove much better.



Here's kinda a better view of the groove:






Any help would be appreciated. The transmission fluid drips out and lands on the hot exhaust which causes a lot of smoke, so it's really not even drive-able. When I bought the car it had very very little trans fluid, so I imagine this is an issue the previous owner encountered.

[laxplayermjd]

the writing should face out when installed, install it flush, put rtv on the splines slide the shaft on, put a little more around the splines/where the nut will sit.

This is how I did mine on my g260 with the technique of old timer bmw master tech

[jlevie]

That groove in the flange looks like wear. You need to seat the seal deeper and avoid the groove to get it to seal.