hey got a ford ef with front crank seal leaking. anyone got any ideas on how to replace n how to undo the crank bolt??

use a socket on the end of a longer bar, take off all the plug leads put the socket on the crank and brace the bar on the ground. then filck the key and crank the engine over for about half a second.
that will crack the bolt for you.

buy a balancer puller and remove the balancer. replace the seal, If it's an original balancer it would be a good idea to replace it as well. (they don't cost much) then reassemble.

would cost between $150 and $200 to have a mechanic do it for you. depending on labour rate and cost of seal. balancer would be extra cost in parts.

We used a rattle gun to crack it. but the above method sounds fun

Getting the seal out is the biggest pain in the a*** ever. The seal actually has a metal insert inside the hard rubber outer part which makes it really hard to pull out if you dont have the proper tool which we didn't. So after pulling all we could get out with pliers we hit the outer part of the seal with a chisel(sounds dumb, it is, but thats all we had) to expose some of the inner metal without damaging the timing case. Then when enough was exposed we got the pliers under the metal and twisted to bend it and break the seal and pulled straight out.

I hope that made sense.

Oh and to put the balancer back on we jammed a 1/2" extension bar in the cam gear( wrapped in rags so you dont damaged the head) to stop the motor turning over while doing it up. Of course if you have a manual you wont have any problems getting it on or off.

hope this helps, cheers

it's surprisingly unspectacular