I'm trying to determine if my trans leak is from the rear seal or if the drive shaft is too short & not fully seated. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

I guess a better question to ask is how much of the front yolk is allowed to protrude from the transmission extension housing?

 

Mine won't be up on the lift (hopefully) until the next oil change...so sorry, no pictures.
Seems to me that when I reinstalled my rebuilt transmission this spring, I worried that I'd let the yoke go too far in, and the un-polished dirty part scrubbed against my new seal. IIRC, it's pretty apparent how much goes in when looking at it. A little may show with the rear in full droop. But I'm thinking if you see a lot of shiny yoke, it's not in all the way.
Regardless, that yoke isn't tapered, so if the seal is good I'm not sure why else it would be leaking.

 

Thanks Blue,
I just confirmed it's a bad seal... Who did your re-build on your tranny? And if you don't mind how much did it set you back? I'm gonna look into getting a rebuild by Liberty.

Idel

 

^Just a local shop to me that came recommended. It ended up being pretty comprehensive...about $1200 for all new brass, shift forks and bearings. Apparently a lot of stuff could only be sourced from MAZDA instead of their usual suppliers. They went through Ray @ Malloy. I r & r'd the transmission myself.

 

Sorry for the dark picture but you can see where the line is on the shaft. I see you got your problem solved but for future reference i guess

 

Plenty of JDM trannys available, prices are reasonable.

We had synchro problems and it was cheaper to get the JDM than repair.