More on 4th gear seal drivers - George's Garage Tool

So I need to put the seal between 4th gear and mainshaft again. Last time, an internet friend lent me his. I figure by the time you need a special tool a second time, you need to own it. I really didn't quite have tooling and stock to make building one worth it.  So I decided to buy a similarly listed tool from George's Garage. I have always heard good things about George's tool and it was about $30 less than the JIMS and still made in the USA.

The funny thing about the George's tool is that its not the same as the JIMS tool. It has a smaller inner diameter. I thought maybe I had gotten one that had been misboxed or something. So I called George's number and left a message. I got a call back pretty quickly and talked to George himself. He is very friendly, knowledgeable and helpful. I told him about the situation. I knew it "wasn't for 4 speeds", but I thought it would work. He told me that his was different than JIMS for a specific reason. JIMS was designed to drive the seal over the seal protector sleeve while still on the mainshaft. George had heard reports of the seal protector sleeve getting jammed in the driver, so he build his differently. Use the seal protector sleeve to get the seal mostly in place and remove the sleeve before using the driver.

All that to say, George's Garage is great place for tools, but you really need to know what tool you need.

So I could send it back for refund, pay shipping again, spend the extra money to buy a JIMS tool and wait another week on it, or get the George's tool to work.

I can make it work with some help from a friend. Here's the tool and a spare mainshaft for fit checking.


See too small.


About 0.085 inch and it needs to be 1.035 inch.


Lummie's all-in-one machine should be able to punch this out no problem


Square the tool to the head.


I need to go about two inches deep, but instead of a travel gauge we just pencil marked 2 one inch marks on the boring bar.


The bottom relief of this boring tool wasn't made for this tight of hole, so we had to turn this far to clear correctly. Ideally cutting would be just a tick under horizontal center line. Not by the book, but it should work for taking 0.005 inch passes in aluminum.


Cut, measure, cut, pass again. Once the calipers say you're there, double check with the spare shaft. Good to go.


Not OSHA approved, but some emery cloth and wooden dowel will clean up the cuts.


Hopefully the tool gets the seal installed and it stays put this time.