GVR-4 Problems in Aftermath of Clutch Change // Unknown Leak from Transmission

[S_39]

Hey all,

Just finished a clutch, flywheel, and pressure plate swap to the ACT 2100 w/ Street Sprung disk and OEM flywheel (Downgraded from twin-disk competition unsprung clutch). Car is running fine, haven't observed any oddities or clutch slipping besides one: when I downshift, if I don't rev-match, I feel/hear something in the transmission shuddering, presumably the clutch disk. Also, there is a faint chirping noise coming from the transmission as well unless the clutch pedal is depressed. I am unsure if both of these things are just artifacts of the recent clutch change and will go away as I break in the clutch more.

All that being said, I have started to observe a small transmission leak — I attached a picture below to illustrate what exactly I've been observing:

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As you can see, at the end of the transmission, a small pool about 3" in length appears after I have driven the car for a while. As I am still in the break-in period for the clutch, I have obviously not been running the car aggressively (keeping it below 5-6K rpm between shifts). This picture was taken after I cleaned about a pea-sized drop that was suspended from the drip point above the puddle. I also saw that a sort of "gloss" appears around the LH (towards the driver side) part of the transmission, indicating that the leak may be coming from somewhere around there, possibly even high up on the transmission. So, here are my questions:

1. Would a poorly-seated output shaft seal (MD723202) cause this leak?
2. When I replaced this output shaft seal while the transmission was off the car, I pulled it with this, was that a mistake (I was careful not to scratch or otherwise damage any components besides the old seal)?
3. Do our transmissions have a fluid "overflow" of sorts, where excess fluid would be ejected from the transmission, if so, would that be causing this?

I have not yet checked if the leak could be coming from axles (I have not had access to a jack or a lift in a while, I will in 2 days), because I had a bit of trouble reinstalling the passenger-side axle and I'm unsure if it seated all the way. However, I checked the boot that goes around the clutch fork and here's what I found:

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Upon seeing this, I felt around the bottom of the bellhousing with my fingers and although I couldn't feel a puddle of oil, it was wet, which is not a good sign for a bellhousing. Unfortunately I don't have a borescope so I couldn't take any pictures of the inside of the bellhousing to see how bad the leak is, but I'm pretty sure at this point that it's the output shaft seal either being damaged or not seated properly due to my installation/removal.

One last question: Do you guys think it would be unsafe for me to drive the car back to the shop (1h away) having seen this leak? I have had a bad experience with components on this car going kaboom on long transits so I'm always super nervous about everything.

Thanks in advance for all your answers.

 

[GST with PSI]

Given the clutch fork boot is wet, and there is oil inside the bellhousing, I'd say there's a good chance the output shaft seal is leaking. Unfortunately, the only way to tell/see where/why it's leaking is to pull the trans. Unless you really badly gouged the case on removal, I'd bet you didn't get the seal properly seated or something.

If you severely overfilled the trans, I suppose it could leak. Slightly overfilling it shouldn't cause the leak you're seeing, though.

I'm not sure I'd drive it an hour with it leaking that bad. $150 for a tow is far cheaper than any transmission you'll find these days.

Regarding engagement issues, check where the fork is sitting in the trans window (should be about center). Then I'd adjust your pedal if need be and do a clutch drag test to hit all the basics.

 

[S_39]

Given the clutch fork boot is wet, and there is oil inside the bellhousing, I'd say there's a good chance the output shaft seal is leaking. Unfortunately, the only way to tell/see where/why it's leaking is to pull the trans. Unless you really badly gouged the case on removal, I'd bet you didn't get the seal properly seated or something.

If you severely overfilled the trans, I suppose it could leak. Slightly overfilling it shouldn't cause the leak you're seeing, though.

I'm not sure I'd drive it an hour with it leaking that bad. $150 for a tow is far cheaper than any transmission you'll find these days.

Regarding engagement issues, check where the fork is sitting in the trans window (should be about center). Then I'd adjust your pedal if need be and do a clutch drag test to hit all the basics.

Thanks for the response. I think if the output seal is indeed not seated correctly it would be somewhere in this corner (I didn't have a socket long enough to fit around the output shaft so I just used a rigid rubber rod and lightly tapped it with a rubber mallet around the seal until I saw it visually seat):

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I should be able to get it on a lift, remove the transfer case and the downpipe and be able to check, right? There should be an obvious pooling of liquid in that little well there under the shaft. I feel like the weirdest thing about this whole thing is that it only leaks after driving. It's been a few hours since I took that picture in my original post and there hasn't been any additional leakage yet... I feel like if it is the output shaft seal not being seated then it's probably mostly seated, just letting out a tiny bit of liquid because of the movement in the shaft while driving...

As for the fork, it's in the center of the trans window. I'll get back to you regarding the clutch drag test.