[Cloud9...68]

Yeah, I have a neighbor who has one (same guy who is loaning me the stand my engine is on at the moment). I'm sure he'll let me borrow it; I see how it can make the tranny removal a lot easier.

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[Cloud9...68]

Well, a possible change of plans. As I was pulling the drivesahft sleeve off, I got my face right up to the opening in the front of the transaxle, and upon closer inspection, it really doesn't look like the input shaft seal is leaking one bit. The part of the transaxle that the seal fits into is painted black, and it's definitely a little dirty/dusty in there, but there's no trace of any wetness, either on or near the seal, nor along the interior wall below the seal.



Actually, I think my leak is coming from the seals that seal the half-shafts to the sides of the transaxle, as shown in the picture below. They're also shown on page 34-38 of the workshop manual, item 9. Also, it wouldn't hurt to replace the seal for the reverse light switch cover, item 5 on page 34-4, as things look a little damp around it as well. The sides of the transaxle around the half-shafts are definitely greasy, and fairly damp. It's usually very difficult to pinpoint the source of a leak, because the liquid will be pushed around by the air flow as the car is in motion, but it looks to me that my leak, which is leaving drops on my garage floor, is originating from these side seals, not the main input shaft seal.



I assume to replace these seals, all I have to do is remove the 13 mm bolt, which is holding the piece that the half-shafts bolt to. I guess I'll have to figure out how to hold the half-shaft mounting pieces in place as I'm turning the bolt. I'm not sure what these seals are called (the shop manual refers them by the uber-descriptive term "sealing ring.") Pelican lists something they refer to as "Transmission output shaft seals," part number [size="2"]999-113-347-40-M204, and they state that two are required per car, which is promising, although their description doesn't state exactly where they go. I'll give them a call.[/size]



[size="2"]This raises the question of whether I should go ahead and continue with the transaxle removal to replace the input shaft seal. I have the sleeve most of the way off, but it's gotten stuck. I sure I could knock it the rest of the way off with a hammer and some type of punch. But I'm debating whether I want to spend my time replacing a seal that seems to be perfectly OK. I'll have to sleep on it. Maybe a few nights...[/size]



[size="2"]Also, this makes about the third or fourth thing the shop that did the PPI when I was selling the car that has turned out to be wrong. Coincidentally, each of the items that they were mistaken about (cracked firewall, faulty LSD, and now the input shaft seal, in addition to what they claim were loose fittings on the fuel lines, which also appear to be perfectly fine) carry huge labor costs with them. [/size]

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[Cloud9...68]

OK, I decided to leave the transaxle input shaft seal alone, as it doesn't appear to be leaking in the least. So, I'm in the process of putting back the things I took off in the process of starting to unbolt the transaxle in preparation for removal, and I've hit a puzzling (at least to me) snag. I never fully removed the drive shaft sleeve; I slid it back most of the way, but never removed it. I slid it back into its original position, and now I'm trying to put the bolts back in the front and rear clamps. The rear clamp is fine; the bolts go back in easily. But the front clamp is a different story. If I look inside the holes for the bolts, I can clearly see the splines of the drive shaft protruding far enough into the bolt hole that they interfere with the bolt. In other words, when I place the bolt back into its hole, it knocks into the splines, and won't go any further. I'm reluctant to try to force it in, out of fear of damaging both the splines and the bolt.



Below is a picture of the rear clamp; hopefully you can see the splines of the drive shaft clearly protruding far enough into the hole to interfere with the path of the bolt. It's the same way with both bolts. Is this in any way normal? I don't remember it being terribly hard to remove these bolts, which it would have been had I had to squeeze them past the drive shaft. I think I have the sleeve back into the right position on the shaft, because the rear clamp is right smack in the middle of the round access hole. Any ideas what's going on? Thanks.

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[Cloud9...68]

OK, I figured it out. The problem is that since I've removed my engine (and clutch), there's nothing stopping the drivshaft from moving forward when I press the sleeve back in the forward direction. So, I can't push the sleeve far enough to get it into position, which would allow the front clamp to be clear of the splines. For awhile, I thought I was in a Twilight Zone episode. But this means I probably won't be able to get the sleeve back into position to tighten the clamps until I put the engine back in the car. Hopefully I won't forget... So, the moral is that if you plan to remove your transmission, make sure the engine is in the car when you do it (probably not too rigorous a requirement for most people ).



Now, I need to educate myself on how the driveshaft assembly works so i don't mess things up when I put the engine back in. At the moment, it's just one mysterious tube inside another mysterious tube to me...

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