MG Car Repair: Gearbox oil seal removal, tail shaft, flat blade

Question
My '76 B had a propshaft assembled 90 degrees out of phase; the U-joints were trashed, and the gearbox rear oil seal was leaking badly.  I pulled the shaft and the flange, and I'm going to replace the oil seal and maybe the rear bearing.  Problem is, I'm having a heck of a time getting the oil seal out.  I've managed to mangle it pretty well and destroy a cheap T-shaped seal removal tool.  Any techniques and/or tools you can recommend for getting it out?  Also, any advice on evaluating and replacing the rear bearing would be great.

Thanks!

Answer
Hi Billy,
Do you mean that you removed the spline assembly and turned it 90 degrees and assembled it? The two axes of the driveshaft (without either yoke) need to be on the same plane.

The rear transmission seal is just a press in fit but the rear bearing has a snap ring holding it in. I have removed the rear seal by just inserting a large flat blade screwdriver and prying it out. This is rough on the tail shaft housing but it can be done. As for the rear bearing the ones that I replaced had to be driven out after removing the large snap ring and driving it out of the tail shaft housing with the housing off using a long drift. This required the removal of the engine and trans and then removing the tail shaft housing. I don't remember ever running into a bad rear bearing only. All the ones I did were in the process of replacing all the bearings in an overhaul.

Howard