Nasty goopy oil sludge inside the bell housing. It's only on the bottom half of the inside though. Also, the same crap is behind the flywheel and everything...

I'm new at this whole "working on internals" thing, but I think I can safely assume that this is not right. Any guesses as to where it's coming from? Rear eccentric shaft seal?

The car doesn't really seem to consume oil, which may be a bad thing since it's supposed to use a little.

Also, anyone know the inner diameter of the pilot bearing? And do I need to replace the pilot bearing seal while doing this?

 

any time you break the engine and tranny, you replace the rear main, and the tranny front seal. Other wise you will one day regret it when they do leak. And sometimes, just reinstalling the tranny can cause an old seal wich isnt very flexible to leak due to the tranny hanging on it at times durring instalation.

Leslie

 

Yes, replacing the pilot bearing and seal are also a Good Thing to do at this time.

 

ok... replacing seals = good... but about all of the oil sludge already in the bell housing and behind (engine side) the flywheel- is this a leaky e- shaft seal? Does removal of the flywheel require air tools, or just some extra manliness?

bah!

:-)

 

Your guess is probably right. The sludge is probably coming from your main rear seal. If you have a pry bar and the right sockets and strong enough ones, you don't need airtools.

 

Could be a combination of road grime that has accumulated during the years, and clutch dust. There is a vent in the tranny casing, and moisture can get in there. Try some castrol super-clean, I swear by that stuff, its awesome. I buy it buy the gallon, put it in a spray bottle, and go to work . Spray it on, let it sit about 10 minutes, then hose it off. Its cleans about anything, and does wonders with grease and oil. I would avoid getting it on the flywheel though.

 

I have some engine degreasing foam, I'll just clean it out with that (unless that's a bad idea?). I have to wait for the pilot bearing seal to get here anyways b/c I'm too much the fool to have ordered one with everything else I'll also yank the flywheel and inspect that seal.

Thanks kids!

 

I scraped out most of it with a screwdriver, & used degreaser to clean up the remainder.