[lust4speed]

Jim, thank you for the offer, but I installed one of the old rope seals this afternoon and will see how my luck runs this time.

74SDformula, looks like the Buick lost its seal exactly the same way. At least I'm not the one and only on the wrong side of luck.

I have no idea whether the seal I installed today was asbestos or fiberglass. I searched back through all four pages of old threads that contained the word asbestos and never did find what they look like. If anyone could post pictures (or direct me if I just missed them) of both early and later rope seals it would be great. I just grabbed the oldest seal pack I had and went for it.

I cut up the Napa Gold filters today and after not really seeing anything at all on the filter pleats, I rinsed them off in the parts cleaner using a coffee filter to catch any debris. Basically just trying to get any particles released from one medium to another. The canisters ended up a nice light brown and super clean so it looks like I did remove everything from them. After all that work all that was captured were little black graphite coated particles that appear to be minute specs of the seal. That's a dime in the photo, and while it might look like there are larger chunks, the little pieces are just clumped together and will all separate to little slivers.