I wish to tap the collective brain trust of the forum to see who among you have attempted to install the four rubber seals in the engine compartment with the motor still in place and if you were successful. Sounds masochistic, but from what I see as long as I can get at the channel with plenty of grease, it should go in. I guess I will need a dull instrument to mash that rubber into the groove. I believe as long as the metal channel is smooth, rust free, and free of burrs, it ought to be straightforward. The existing rubber is complete, intact, pliable (not brittle), just plain old.

I'm really lazy and want to avoid dropping the motor/tranny and all the associated steps.

If you did succeed at the tough installation, you later said to yourself, " If I had to do it all over again, I would have removed the motor/tranny." I don't mind spending a day for each side (total four days), rather than moving the entire powerplant/tranny assembly out of the way. BTW, which lubricant to use, white lithium grease, glycerin, silicone spray, or WD-40 ?

please chime in with any (good or bad) opinions.

Thanks all.


UPDATE #1 Engine still in place.
The suggestion of WD-40 is spot on. It took about an hour to install the relay panel side. Scrub the empty channel with a tooth brush, blow out with compressed air and spray WD-40 generously into the channel, using the WD-40 straw. This was the easy panel. Things I have learned thus far, REMOVE the engine lid to gain better manipulation room. Also use a Harbor Freight panel tool to push the rubber into the last bit of channel. The inchworm method could not be used in my case because my rubber channel did not have widened section of channel.
FINAL UPDATE #2 Engine still in place.
Spray WD-40 on the rubber and leave it dripping and of course clean the channel and spray WD-40 generously in the channel. In five minutes, while the car was on jackstands, I was able to install the channel on the rear firewall quite easily. (engine lid and air cleaner box removed) There was no widened gap on the rear channel and the new seal was fed from below. While I was beneath the car, I saw about 1 inch of gap on the side rubber (battery side) so I decided to swap out the rubber on that side (without taking out the stuff on the battery side). I pried open the metal channel with a standard blade screwdriver about 1/8 inch and pulled out the old rubber and matched it up with the new one for length. AGain, be generous with WD-40 on the new rubber and the cleaned channel. Feed and push the rubber and it should slide into the channel as it is pushed. All told, this took about 2 hours. I am leaving the last piece of seal for another time when I drop the motor, since it was intact, although a bit crusty. From what I could tell, it did not look like an easy job because the existing rubber was tighter than my other pieces of rubber. Oh don't forget to hook the rubber on the tin while you are under there.

It should be doable with the engine in...without having to mash the seal into the track. Just make sure there’s an opening in the track to feed it in. Here’s a video I made of the process...

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=EVkFtQxOoTY

I had my engine out,however I noted I wasn't to hard with a bit of water and detergent,don't use grease as its can be rather unfriendly with rubber.
Don't over stretch the rubber going into the metal channel,cut it longer than it needs to be because it will shrink and the corners will pull away leaving gaps.
The corners were originally hog ringed together don't know if you will have room to do that? with engine in.
I have a six in my car so would think I would be easier as you can remove the sections of tin,I really don't know off hand if you can do the same with the 4 cyl.
These strips of rubber are really important and many don't see that,differance is a cooler running motor if these seals are correctly in place or one that is on the point of overheating with them missing or perished.
Good luck.

Don't open the track ,you will chip the paint and this area is already one of the best rust traps on these cars .

Awesome Utube video !! Just the technique and advice I needed. I'll report back how it goes and how much time it took.
Thanks all.

Hmmm. The tracks had openings on both my 73 and 74. I thought they came from the factory that way. No?

Great video Ian, really helps to demystify the process.

Watching this thread w/ interest. I have a new set of the 914 Rubber seals, but haven't tackled the job yet because I don't want to drop the engine to do it.