connects.

I found about 2 - 3 tablespoons of tranny oil in the black plastic cup. This is an accmulation of aprox. a year.

Is this an excessive amount?

Droping the engine/tranny to install an (hopefully) un-knocking engine

........b

This is probably typical, the transaxle for the V8 car we're building had a similar amount. I think there's a drain hole in the cover so excessive leakage will drip out there. Fix is to replace the shifter shaft seal, and you might as well replace all the other seals at the same time.

yes, it is excessive, and it will get worse. Happily, the fix is pretty easy, especially if you're already taking the engine out. Get yourself a tranny gasket set and replace the seals. Ther's a o-ring around the shift console. Take off the 2 8mm nuts and carefully ease it out. If not carefully done it may get wedged and you (or the PO) may mar the opening such that the new seal will not seal. In that case, use some rtv silicone too. There's also a seal on the selector fork. Drive out the pin and put the seal in the console. Might as well do the seals on the axles, input shaft, and speedo. For bonus points, replace the pilot bearing. If this cheap little doodad goes bad, it will destroy the input shaft of your nicely sealed tranny - no fix for that but a new tranny.