Sidecover removal on Tecumseh HS40

[creia]

1970 Tecumseh HS40 -55282B
Serial # 0244 0333
My son and I taking this engine apart for a complete rebuild. It is my understanding that this engine is ball bearing supported on the PTO end, and the sidecover cannot be removed w/o first removing the circlip secured to the crank behind the oil seal.
Can someone provide me with some pointers on properly removing the oil seal? As we will be installing a new oil seal when we reassemble, is the old one "sacrificial" and you destroy it when removing it? I am also curious WHY the need for the circlip in the first place? We have never seen a small engine with this feature before.
Thank you for any help.
Michael

[KE4AVB]

Haven't seen this engine so the following an educated guess. I would say the snap ring is to prevent the bearing from walking out the cover pushing the oil seal out. I only seen one or two engines in the past that snap ring was around the shaft and had to remove so bearing could slide off with the cover. On these the shaft must be clean with no burrs especially around those retaining grooves for the snap ring. From the description of having to remove the seal I would think the old seal would be destroyed too; just makes sense here.

Others will have suggestions on the seal removal that are more familiar with this setup.

[bgsengine]

if it has the bearing retainer bolts (nuts on the outside of the side cover) one could also remove the nuts, make sure the bolts are free and pull side cover leaving bearing on shaft (But you'll have to disassemble bearing from shaft and re-install to side cover before putting it back together)

Other than that - whatever KE4 said.

[creia]

Thank you both for the replies- sincerely appreciated.
After doing a bit more research online I founds a few threads on some discussion forums about sidecover removal onthis engine. Evidently, the oil seal IS sacrificial in that you are expected to destroy it upon removal! The technique for removal is to carefully drill a couple of small holes through the thin outer metal section of the seal and thread in a couple of sheet metal screws and pull on those to pop out the seal to access and remove the circlip preventing the sidecover from being removed. Brian, there are no nuts on the OUTSIDE of the sidecover, however, there are screws and washers holding the bearing into the journal in the recessed sidecover on the INSIDE which I learned about while viewing disassembled photos of this engine online.
Michael

[bgsengine]

OK, sounds like you got it figured out - I have seen some engines where you could remove the nuts on either side of the crank and they had flat square head bolts that retained bearing.... (Actually had one I HAD to tear apart because someone removed the nuts and the bolts eventually fell out into the crankcase) but have yet to see one of the ones you are dealing with - if I recall, the ones I was thinking of were used in larger engines (8 - 10 HP) and not so much on the small frame engines. (even back then they were usually just shortblocked or replaced anyway, as I recall) Tecumseh engines are getting to be a rare thing around here, as mowers and older equipment get junked or re-powered... we've stopped stocking parts for them any more at the shop.

[creia]

UPDATE:
My son got the sidecover removed. The last thing you expect when removing a sidecover is a concealed circlip under the oil seal! I am posting a pictorial for others to see in case anyone else ever needs to remove the sidecover off of a ball-bearing PTO HS40. You start by drilling 2 tiny holes in the oil seal and thread in sheet metal screws. Then you can pry out the oil seal to reveal the circlip. Of course the oil seal is now toast, so install a new one upon reassembly.
Michael

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