Hey everyone.. New to forum. Have a 1968 p1800s that has a terrible oil leak where tranmission (Manual) meets rear of engine.. What exactly goes into changing that, and is there a website that I can check out with that info. I believe it is the crankshaft seal. Can I just take the transmission out, and then the flywheel and change seal while engine is in the car? Anyone who has done this the info would be greatly appreciated!..
Thank you in advance
Neil

I'd check the tranny input shaft seal too as it can spew in the fullness of time. Especially ig you've been "topping-up" the tranny a lot!

--
Mike!

In addition to what others have said... Of course, going with the later neoprene seal back there will be better... I wouldn't bother replacing the felt seal.

But also keep in mind that the problem might lie elsewhere... If you crankcase pressure is too high, it'll just blow the oil out wherever it can. Check and make sure that system isn't plugged. Could be that your engine is getting worn out, and is soon to need a bebuild...
--
-Matt I ♥ my ♂

Definitely go with a Neoprene seal for the rear. No questions, just do it. hard to get to and you don't want any problems back there. The front felt seal may be kept, as it's cheap and easy to replace. I went with neoprene myself though. It is important to seal the whole engine-while the x-member is out of the way, check out the pan gasket. Might not be leaky but it's not difficult to replace if you're already doing the rear seal.

Oil can come out of the distributor shaft too. I just put a little black RTV around the hole after I cleaned things up and it seems to be holding up just fine. The mechanical fuel pump can leak also if the diaphram inside is bad and not holding back oil, change it out of it's bad. If you do make sure to get a new spacer and gaskets. Changing the valve-cover gasket is a no-brainer. Rember the "weak link" analogy? If you're going to make the entire engine leak-proof, for a little time/$ why not start out fresh and replace all of the gaskets/seals for a headache-free ride. All of the things I mentioned cost less than $200 (including the rear neoprene gasket housing/gasket) and a weekend (or two if you run into problems of take it slow) or two of work. Well worth it, I'd say!
--
'66 1800S

Yes, it can be done with the engine in the car. Just carefully position a small chunk of wood between the firewall and the back of the engine and take out the crossmember. Unhook everything from the transmission (shifter, OD wiring, speedo cable, driveshaft, clutch). Unbolt the bellhousing and it should have *just* enough room to slide back out of the engine and free. A nice trick (nicer in some ways even than a special transmission jack) is to drop a loop of rope down through the shifter hole and around the transmission, and use it to hold the back half of the trans while you wrangle the front half.

Once that is out of the way, take off the pressure plate and the flywheel. If your car has an old style felt seal you will probably want to get an updated seal housing with a neoprene seal from IPD. Be careful removing the seal housing to not overly damage the oil pan gasket, and be careful when reassembling it to center the seal on the crank - instead of letting the oil pan pressing on the bottom determine the position.

Bolting the flywheel back on is serious business - a flywheel coming off at high rpms could cost you your legs. Use some threadlocker on the bolts and tighten them carefully to the proper torque spec (can't recall it off the top of my head). It would be silly to put the old clutch back on at this point - unless you enjoy pulling transmissions. If the pressure plate looks phenomenal you might just put on a clutch disc. It would be a good idea to replace the throwout and pilot bearings as well while they are handy. You will need a clutch alignment tool to hold the clutch disc in the proper position while you tighten the pressure plate back on.

When putting the transmission back on it helps to put it in 4th gear - that way you can turn the back end of it to line up the splines. The rope trick works better putting a trans in than it does in removing it - the rope lets the transmission wiggle from side to side and back and forth. If you've properly aligned the clutch plate then this re-mating the trans should be a snap - if not you could fight with it for hours.
--
I'm JohnMc, and I approved this message.

John, that is the best method, IMHO. I had other work to do and pulled my engine/tranny. After it was all over (runs great now) I realize I really didn't have to go to all of the trouble and probably would have made less of a mess of things had I done it the way you suggested. Removing the crossmember seems the easiest way.

The following links from http://www.v1800reg.org/ are informative:

Check "Oil Leaks" http://www.v1800reg.org/pages/Did%20you%20know%2083to84.pdf

Check "Engine Removal" http://www.v1800reg.org/pages/Did%20you%20know%2080to81.pdf
--
'66 1800S

PS - the crossmember I was referring to was the tranmission crossmember, not the front suspension crossmember. You shouldn't need to remove that one just to get the transmission off. The PV's tunnel is very tight, but you can still unhook the trans from the bellhousing and remove it, then remove the bellhousing, you just can't do it as one unit like you can on a 122. And presumably an early 1800 - I know for sure you can on later E model 1800's, but I suspect the E's and ES's have larger tunnels.
--
I'm JohnMc, and I approved this message.

Thank you Very much for the info.. Very informative and very descriptive. You guys rock!!

I have a few updated seal housings at a reasonable price.
e-mail me offline if interested.
--
George Downs Bartlesville, Heart of the USA!