Flywheel (front) oil seal?

[ropeman23]

I changed my flywheel oil seal today. It says in the Haynes manuel "don't forget the O ring". Well there wasn't one there when I took the flywheel off?? So following the book to the word i put one in. Did the flywheel bolts up and I can't turn the engine over by hand, not even with a bar on the pully end bolt. So took it apart again took the O ring out (the O ring had been squashed flat), bolted it back together and it now turns by hand as it did before.

Am I doing something wrong? Does it need the O ring? Worked fine before without it.......

[Aidan]

must be for a reason, vw wouldn't have fitted it otherwise, but I know what you are saying it's not going to leak, it must be to do with preventing oil deposits building up between end of flywheel and crank, causing possible hydraulic load on bolts and or said deposits making subsequent removal v difficult

o ring sits in a groove and needs a slip of oil, often distorted esp the cheap ones that jk sell that could be the problem and why it's picking up and pulling out of the groove

[ropeman23]

I didn't realise there was a grove for it to sit in That's probably why it didn't turn when I bolted it all up the first time. Better take it to bits again tomorrow and have another look.

On another note how do you line the splines up with the gearbox spigot? Get it roughly in place then turn the flywheel till it slides back on? Cheers.

[kevtherev]

get an old spigot off a breaker.. perhaps