title says it. just got my car back on the road and it now has a transmission leak. dripping from the clutch fork and bell housing... let me know what you think.

-Peter

There are two sources of leaking in that area, the input shaft seal, and the ball post that the shift for pivots on. You need to pull the transmission to fix either, but you do not need to pull the box apart to fix them. About a 3-4 hour novice job.

Rear main seal. You do not have to drop the engine to get to it, but you do have to take off the flywheel. It ain't easy.

Doing it sooner than later is best, because you may get by without having soaked the clutch in motor oil. Clutch plates are about 100 bucks. Get the 6 spring Sachs.

That is an extra $350-500 if you do have to replace the entire clutch assembly. Damn thing is that the rear main seal is about 10 bucks. Change the cable and all the parts at the same time. I am about to myself.

Was the car sitting for a while, did you overfill the engine, or was it a really hot drive?

There is no particular reason why they let go, other than the spring in the seal itself loses tension.

I have replaced at least 1 on each car I had. 6 914's. 6 seals. Get it from Pelican or AA. Should be orange in color.

Kind of doubt it would be a tranny seal if it is coming down the housing and fork.

John

Yep, mine leaked from the trans input shaft seal. One of those while i'm here jobs to. Clutch, repack CV's, replace CV gaskets and schnor washers, possibly engine rear main, trans mounts, on and on...

Since there are two possible sources for the leak (as mentioned above), the first priority is to determine if it is engine oil or transmission oil. If nothing else, they sure smell different.

Well, my advice was based on it actually being ruled a transmission leak. If the ball stud is leaking it can absolutely leak down the fork. A bad input shaft seal can also leak down the fork as it allows oil to be sling all over the place. You definitely need to pull the tranny off to get to the bottom of this.

Dr. Evil is right. Only one way to know. Yank that box.

I never had a front tranny leak, but damn, I have had too many rear main seal leaks to want to remember.

I remember having the oil get slung out to the bell housing and drip down the fork.

I had a sinking feeling reading your posting. Some things one never forgets.

J

lucky for me, i was already planning on pulling the engine/tranny so I will be able to determine what is going on. I should have mentioned this in the beginning, but it is a subaru engine with an entire new clutch assembly. sounds like it might be the input shaft seal or the ball post. ill take pictures when i pull the engine and separate the two. (hopefully tomorrow) then ill post the pics and we can go from their.

-Peter

Does this setup have support for the input shaft? If not it will flop around leaking past the new seal.

what do you mean support for the input shaft?

on type 4 cranks inside the end is a needle beading to support the input shaft. On 914s the bearing is on the flywheel with a spacer inside the crank to keep the bearing in place. Running without a supportbearing means the shaft will move as it's then supported by the bearing inside the 901 tranny. Oil will slingpast it as it will move around it as it moves as there is always some play .

did you use synthetic before it let go??

well, i spent the first half of the day building a nice dolly for my engine to come out on... i should have done this the first day. anyways. got the engine and tranny out no problem and here are pictures of the clutch assembly side and the tranny side... pretty certain it is a leak from the tranny. now, how do i tell if it is the input shaft seal or the ball stud seal?

bleyseng-

to be honest i am not sure if it has the support bearing. I assume it does, as I purchased my flywheel/clutch/pressure plate from KEP. anyone else have insight to this?

Click to view attachment

tranny...

Take out the socket head that holds the fork in and look at the ball stud under it. You will need to do this to get the TOB off and then the TOB sleeve to look under it for the seal leaking. It will be obvious.

i removed the fork and the TOB. do i need to remove the ball stud? or just look at it.. it all looks pretty crappy. also, to get the TOB sleeve off, do i just remove the plate that is mated to the tranny with the two nuts on either side? i dont have any fluid in the transmission, that is why i am wondering how to really tell where the leak is. should i just fill the tranny back up with fluid? (i took the fluid out becasue i removed the speedo drive gear when dropping the engine/tranny)

thanks dr. evil

-Peter

just pulled the TOB sleeve... you're right, it is obvious

nuther...
Click to view attachment

now, is there a trick to replacing the seal? or just pull it out, get a new one and put it back in.


-Peter

Seal puller, and then install a new one. Cheap, and easy. I would check the ball stud tightness. You may be able to remove it with your bare hands. You need a 14mm with a beveled edge to get into the recess.

You must be young and full of piss and vinegar. The rest of us would just be thinking about pulling the trans still. And planning on a week we can recover after wards so as not to disrupt normal working hours

haha... I am young, 21, and i just got my conversion done and driveable about 3 weeks ago after 2 years of work... so i have lots of energy right now to sort out the issues before i take it to school in 2 weeks (hopefully).

its funny how dropping the engine out is no big deal anymore.. literally had it out in about 30 minutes.

dr. evil-

can i get a seal puller at a kragen or kohlweiss, or should i go to Rich Bontempi at HPH and get the seal and seal puller?


-Peter

You can get a seal puller from just about anywhere (local auto parts store). It just has a handle with two hooks on the end. Just make sure you don't mess up the machined sealing surface of the case when you pull out the old seal. The seal can be bought from the usual list of Porsche parts suppliers.

When reading this thread, I also am curious to know if you have a bearing for the end of the input shaft. If you look at the end of the input shaft, you will see that there is a bit of shaft that extends beyond the splined part that fits into the clutch disk. That stub is what slides into the support bearing.

So the support bearing is in the clutch assembly? ill have to check it out.

It's actually in the flywheel on a T-4

just checked... there is a sleeve-style bearing just beyond the splines of the clutch disc. this sounds like the support bearing mentioned above. i tried to take a picture of it, but couldnt get enough light down the hole.