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Is the transmission “Input Shaft seal” the same as “Clutch housing Seal” ?
And if so, any experienced tips on this?
Last week I ran the car up in the lift for a routine oil change. While draining the engine oil I noticed a couple drips had formed on the metal trans. shield. After dropping the shield I followed a little trail of oil back to the “weep hole” at the bottom of the bellhousing. Uh oh. First suspect was a main seal but after removing the inspection cover it looked like it was coming from behind the clutch assembly (see the crappy but best I could do photo below):
No indication of any clutch contamination thus far. And since the leak appears to be minor I checked the gear oil level (which was still essentially full) and intend to leave the issue go for a couple months when my driving season is over.
Checking FSM (J-54) Mazda refers to a clutch housing seal, but I didn’t find anything in thread titles here using that term. I DID find info on an “input shaft seal” here: https://www.rx7club.com/3rd-generati...seals-1071386/
Just would like to confirm they’re the same and though the FSM pic makes it seem straight forward, ive never messed with it so any tips are appreciated. Thanks, Jim
the input shaft seal, H501-17-103 lives in the little bolt on thing for the throw out bearing. then the bellhousing gets sealed to the transmission with sealant. once the trans is out, its really easy to reseal the bellhousing to the trans, you just have to make sure any shims in there go back where they came from.
#10 is where I would start. It's not hard to get to with the trans out, remove the bolt-on cover behind the throwout bearing and there it is. It's a round rubber seal very similar to the seal at the front of the engine.
Pry out with a screwdriver, clean things up, use a soft hammer to install the new one. I did one not too long ago and it look all of 3 minutes.
I don't see any reason to unbolt the bell housing unless you see evidence of one of the RTV seals leaking.
#10 is where I would start. It's not hard to get to with the trans out, remove the bolt-on cover behind the throwout bearing and there it is. It's a round rubber seal very similar to the seal at the front of the engine.
Pry out with a screwdriver, clean things up, use a soft hammer to install the new one. I did one not too long ago and it look all of 3 minutes.
I don't see any reason to unbolt the bell housing unless you see evidence of one of the RTV seals leaking.
Dale
Thanks Dale...this is reassuring. I just never pulled that clutch release collar and didn’t want to get surprised. And thanks j9fd3s for that part number. I’ll be calling Ray Crowe for that and a couple of other miscellaneous things and hopefully it’s not an issue with the housing seal. If there’s anything notable as I do it I’d add to this thread.
Finally finished a project on my antique car and was able to drop the transmission on the RX7 last week. [sidenote: if you think sealing an FD oil pan is tough, try a 4-pc seal on an early 50’s Chevy straight-six]
Anyway, like a lot of such projects, this one expanded a bit. No big problems, and I did confirm the input shaft seal was the leak source. I also found my shifter to be in dire need of a rebuild. The small boot was shot and when I pulled the shifter out the lower nylon bushing didn’t come with it. After turning the entire transmission upside down on the bench I got the big piece out which was pretty chewed up. I’ve got the entire kit coming.
Also found one of the two Mazdacomp differential bushings I put it two years ago was leaking. A little upsetting but with the PPF, drive shaft and exhaust already down, now is the time to deal with it.
Probably 15 or 16 years ago and maybe 80k miles I put an ACT street/strip clutch in. The last 6 or 8 years that was paired with a LWFW...which probably accelerates wear some. No hot spots on the FW or the pressures plate but the disc was getting down there, so a got a new one straight from ACT. Note below that the disc design has changed. I called and confirmed this IS the correct disc, and all measurements are the same.
Yeah, a local guy had it AND a spare friction plate. I traded a set of old coil overs for it. I think I just had to source the CW. Seems good quality and been happy with it.
Was just reading on Racing Beat’s site that they suspect R & R’ing the transmission causes the input shaft to flex and is hard on that input shaft seal. I’ve probably had the transmission out at least half a dozen times over the years. So if they’re right the leak was overdue.
For posterity, it’s not clear from the FSM explosion drawing but the seal doesn’t live in the release collar like I’ve seen in some online videos for Miatas. It’s on the shaft not unlike the engines rear main seal. It fought me a little coming out. I wanted to be careful not to mar or scratch the seat but it finally came out using a hook pick. All and all pretty straightforward.
One last little side note...
The old dust boot I cut off during the shifter rebuild made a nice “block-off” plate using some gasket paper I had laying around. Why is this worth the time? Because it cost next to nothing, took a couple of minutes, I can refill the shifter reservoir with the transmission sitting on the bench and not run any risk of spillage in the interior of the car. Gear oil smells like camel ***, I can be clumsy and even a drop is pretty much permanent in cloth upholstery. That always made me nervous.
08-31-20, 08:36 AM
Seems good quality and been happy with it.
