[AT] Caution - Oil question

[carl gogol]

Last winter I replaced the front main seal and used one of those fancy 
repair sleeves on the crankshaft of an AC D-14.  I am in the middle of 
trying to fit this tractor up with one of these side mount all hydraulic 
sickle bar type road mowers (that can be a another story- some day).  No 
time to work on it when the weather is good - too many chainsaw activites to 
fill my time so it hasn't been run for more than an hour until about 3 weeks 
ago.

All summer long the oil slowly leaked from the seal I replaced.  The tractor 
was used for a few hours about 3 weeks ago to pull a brush chipper from pile 
to pile and then put it away.

My question is related to a quick observation - the leak seems to have 
slowed down significantly since the use.  One more piece of info - I 
upgraded to a synthetic blend oil since it was cheap when bought and it 
seems a shame to change the oil every year with so little use.  Does a 
synthetic slow down the normal wearing in process of a seal or did I some 
how screw up this somewhat simple job?

Carl Gogol
Manlius, NY
AC One Seventy diesel
(2) AC D-14, AC 914H
Simplicity 3112 & 7116
Kubota F-2400, B 7300