That's what happens when a leak is left too long.  The seal rubber wears away and the tension spring ends up metal to metal on the sealing surface.  Pretty common on propeller shafts too.

The repair sleeves are pretty thin.  They seem to work.  Really though, I'm not sure the rubber lip on a good new seal will ride in the groove left by the tension spring.  Might be worth a measurement.

Speedi sleeves are very thin! Sometimes it helps to heat one and cool the other to aide assembly

Hi All,

Purchased the Speedi sleeve and a Nissan front crank seal. Read posts on the life cycle of aftermarket crank seals.

You defiantly can see the wire pattern from the seal in the groove on the shaft. You can also see where the seal was sitting on the shaft, not sure the seal was flush with the cover?

Any other trick or methods (other than heat and cold) for the sleeve pressing process? 

Thank you for all the info. 

Bit late now, but a trick is to not install the new seal all the way flush so the seal lip rides on a new un-marked part of the crank snout. Use in a pinch, not the world’s best solution.

I fully agree you are doing the right thing with this extreme case to use a speedy sleeve. 

Install the seal in the front cover.