Fixed My Transmission Leak - Sorta' Cheated

[grey beard]

When I was going through my power train, I did not pull the transmission or clutch. Everything worked well and seemed okay. I did, however, drain and refill both the transmission and differential with new lube and replaced the pinion seal and universal joints that were rough. Wound up with a lollipoluzer of a transmission leak, right there on my garage floor.

The gear box was filthy, so when I was cleaning my motor, I scraped it down and cleaned it up. Looking at it later, I was able to see that it was leaking from the front edge, where the hox and bell hosing meet.

The parts book shows no seals in the front of these gear boxes, only one at the rear, but this rear tailshaft seal is higher than the fill plug on the side of my three speed box, so I knew that couldn't be leaking, just sitting here, paked. Could lelak, however, on the road.

There have been several posts on this forum to the effect that a gasket is needed between the transmissikon front body and the bell housing. Photos of the transmission front reveal two machined holes in the front case surface, where the two idler shafts - reverse and cluster shaft - are serviced on overhaul. Logic says these two holes are the only potential leak points at the font case area.

Yesterday I loosened up the four bolts that hold the transmission to the bell housing, stuck a jack under the back of the gear box and pried it back a tad, and was able to get a 1/4-inch opening between the two machined surfaces - gear box and bell housing. I then cut a piece of gasket material with a concave rounded top edge to fit around the input shaft bearing I could see sticking out, in there, and shoved it up inside, between the two surfaces, coverfing both idler shaft holes in the process.

I'm not gonna' preach to you and say this fix is as good as R & R'ing the transmission and installing a new full gasket between the two. I will say, however, that with a gear box full of lube just now, it sat for 16 hours, and there is not a spot on the floor.

I'm happy.

(These pics are from this forum - not my own oriinally.)

[Young Ed]

Dave I did basically what you did in my car. I slide the tranny back 1/2 in or so and was able to put a full gasket in. I did the bottom 2 bolts first and then removed the top 2 to complete the gasket. The factory tranny gaskets were split at the top anyways so no worry about that.