Originally Posted by Les2

Is it the wear sleeve off of the old seal by chance? To me thats what it looks like.

Appears to be part of the crank, the lip is only about 1/8" in length...If this is the old wear sleeve how do I get it off?

Carefully cut through it with a small chisel then pry it off. Then go and borrow an installer tool from a shop to install the new seal assy.

The old seal was a little bit different looking, then again it came out in about 6 different pieces. I'm about 99% sure this is part of the crank itself. It's one continuous piece all the way around the crank with no breaks or splits in it.

Here's two hi res photos of the lip:

The wear ring is one continuous piece press fit onto the crank. You always have to work them off during seal replacement. The installer tool is necessary to install the new seal assembly because the wear ring is press fit.

Originally Posted by bender

The wear ring is one continuous piece press fit onto the crank. You always have to work them off during seal replacement. The installer tool is necessary to install the new seal assembly because the wear ring is press fit.

Gotcha. I take it that the installer tool just uses brute force to press the new seal over and past the wear ring or does the wear ring get removed and reinstalled?

The manual for this engine really doesn't go into too much detail on this subject. Thanks again for the help!