On rare occasions the oil gallery plugs can leak.
There are several parts that should be changed on a standard shift vehicle.
1) The front main seal.
2) Flywheel O Ring  and felt seal.
3) Pilot Bearing
On a automatic with a flex plate it just amounts to the main seal on the
crank.
True it wouldn't hurt to clean the area in the flywheel and seal the crack
on it's surface.
Since most of the crack or split is above the oil level it seldom presents a
problem with leaks.

Stan Wilder

-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com]On Behalf
Of Warren.K.Lail-1
Sent: Wednesday, February 25, 2004 9:14 PM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Flywheel seal

<<Kenneth Price wrote:

I have a bad oil leak in my 2.1L vanagon on the flywheel side.>>

<<John Rodgers wrote:

Your description is not really clear. A case seam leak can also be on
the flywheel side. Most typically, a leak between the case and the
flywheel is a flywheel  seal ( sometime called a crankshaft oil seal)
leak. Removing the flywheel and replacing the seal usually takes care of
the problem.

If you are going to have the tranny out, now is the time to replace the
seal. It will most likely take care fo the problem.

Regards,

John Rodgers
88 GL Driver>>

Warren Lail writes:

I agree with John.  If you are going to pull the
tranny now is the time to replace the seal, but if
your bus is a standard, I would also replace the
seal on the tranny input shaft.  It is inexpensive
and just as easy to replace as the flywheel seal.

Warren Lail
88 Westy "Billy Bones" (still in dry dock)
87 GL