otcviper

I recently experienced a major oil leak. The oil was coming out of the square little cut-out in the bottom of the timing cover. My best guess was front main seal. As it was time for my '98 GS400 (177k miles) to have the timing belt/WP etc changed again, I dug in and replaced everything. Good thing I did because oil had been slung all through the timing belt area (bad news if that belt slips), I guess from the crank shaft picking up the oil. I replaced T-Belt/WP/idlers/tensioner and main seal. Buttoned it all back up and guess what... yep, that little blanker is still leaking.

The installation of the new main seal went smoothly (it was hard to press in, but never hung up on anything) so I'm somewhat sure it did not get pinched when installing it... though I'm just a normal garage hack so who knows.

My questions for this distinguished group are:

-How easy is it to pinch a main seal? I'm guessing the only real way to know if I did is to pull it off and inspect the seal. If it looks fine... I'm guessing oil pump seal is bad and blowing past the main seal (please feel free to disagree, like I said, I'm not a very good mechanic).

-Has anybody ever removed/installed an oil pump on a GS400? The Alldatadiy website says that the engine must be removed in order to remove the pans/oil pump. I've see references online to people saying they unbolted the motor mounts, lifted the engine up a little and then can pull the pans/pump. Has anybody ever done this? If so, what are the major pitfalls? I've tried like the devil to find a DIY on this forum as well as 'others', to no avail.

I appreciate all responses...