I had a leaky front drive shaft seal on my JD 4200 compact tractor. I finally got a cousin over to help me split the tractor in half so we could replace the seal. Southern Maryland, USA
I have replaced them seals without splitting the tractor a long thin screwdriver to pluck seal out and a short piece of pvc pipe same diameter as the seal to slip over shaft to drive it in done
Yeah I don't see any reason to split it. I just did my 450's PTO seals w/out removing any covers or anything. Hardest part is getting the old seal out.