
Lord the following user was right takes the power of all gods known to man! To remove this seal, I gave up the flathead screwdriver method. Instead, I used a slide hammer. I screwed in the threaded connection between the lip seal and the gasket and attached a hammer then it went to town, it took more force than I thought it would, so I can imagine a way of removing the paint with a screwdriver or chisel. In addition, the installation was also a bit tedious, the thing just wanted to go in wrong. I finally managed to work this out with some old gears I had laying around and a hammer oh god getting a crossbeam hammer is torture I guess if you have to do the job yourself get one a slide hammer and save yourself the headache. You may also want to get a quart of transfer case fluid as you will lose at least a pint after removing the gasket. I then went for a test ride and the gasket seems to be holding with no leaks, looks like a solid gasket so I hope I don't have to climb back in.