I would change the profusely leaking rear oil seal of my Getrag 5 speed if I could only get a socket to fit the flange nut. Does anyone know the size? It appears to be just a tic bigger that 1 1/8" but smaller than 1 3/16". My calipers show it at 1.159”. This works out to about 29.44 mm for you metric folks. A 30 mm socket is too big. Yes, I made sure that the "keeper" for the nut was not in the way and I also spent time grinding on a cheap socket to make sure that it was not too big around on the outside. What am I missing?
Not sure. I did just get a large socket, like around 32mm at Sears for some bearing nuts on another car I'm working on. They had a good assortment.
If it really is a 0.44mm difference I'd take the just larger socket you have and put a piece of paper (probably heavy light contruction paper in this case) it in to shim it up. I've done this before on an English socket for metric when I didn't have the right thing and it worked, well up to 80 ft lbs which is how high I had to go.
The flange nut is off and the seal is replaced! For anyone interested, the nut is 30mm. The problem was the "keeper" to prevent the nut from backing out had been mangled in place. Someone did not line up the flats. They just beat on it until it went in. More grinding on the outside diameter of the socket allowed clearance.