How to deal with transmission oil leak., It's slow now, will it get worse ? Options

[scoobie]

Hi folks, newbie to this forum, so if I inadvertently commit bad netiquette please give me some slack.

I have a 1972 1.7, I've noticed drops of oil on my driveway ever since I got the car 4 and 1/2 years ago, it's coming from the rear near the gear that drives the speedometer (so I am told, I'm not a 914 expert). I've recently changed the transmission oil (as I started noticing a whine in 4th gear and I suspect its due to the gear oil leak) and the tech told me I had only 1 quart of oil in there, where normally there should be 6 quarts.

So, my conclusion is that it leaked about 5 quarts in about 11000 miles (I filled the gear oil when I first got the car, and have driven 11000 miles since).

My questions are: am I correct in my assumption about the leakage, and if so, can I get away with not fixing it (at the present time) and just do the occasional gear oil service. Am I doing anything detrimental to the transmission or other parts of the car ?

Thanks for your inputs.

[Dr Evil]

You could drain the oil from the gear drive hole. Just keep a pan under it. It probably will not drain all out. Two recommendations, though. 1. Do as Mike said and jack up the rear of the car to help save the oil, 2. before you do anything, remove the fill plug on the tranny (upper plug) so that you can be sure to have the ability to refill it before you drain it.

Don't worry about "juvenile" questions. We all were not born with wrenches in our hands and had to learn some where. This place is a kind, friendly place to learn so feel free to ask what everyou are unsure about (IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif)