xfer case leak?

[nuclearpenguin]

i sold my probe because it had a cracked tranny and i didnt wanna mess with it. now im stuck with another puddle of gear oil in the garage

its a 92 laser awd and ive only had it maybe 2 days. i just noticed a light leak of gear oil and jacked it up to look. i couldnt quite pinpoint the leak so i sprayed some degreaser around the drain bolt (around where the puddle was) and wiped it clean then drove around for a few minutes and jacked it back up, now its leaking alot worse. i cant barely get in there to see *exactly* where the leak is but heres a few pics:

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this is a pretty vague pic, i couldnt even get under where the pic was taken cause my jack isnt manly enough, but the leak is up here somewhere.

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this pic is a little more helpful. this shows where the gear oil is dripping down in relation to the xfer case drain bolt. the red circle is the gear oil dripping down and the blue arrow is the xfer case drain bolt, this pic is taken from the drivers side pointed towards the passenger side.

what is up there in that crevice that could possibly leak? i can barely interpret the parts of this car (im not familiar with awd setups yet). does the trans/xfer case hookup up there? WTF

thanks

 

[mujgy]

Indeed, the transfer case bolts to the transmission. Also there is an output shaft on the transmission that goes into the transfer case. There are rubber seals around each shaft and could easily be worn out.

Now the question is do you have the tools/ service manual and appropriate jack stands/jack and a good buddy that will crawl under the car with you to help take the transfer case off the car and replace the seals? Its not impossible to do by yourself if you know what you are doing but the transfer case gets a little heavy after awhile when you are putting it all back together.

If you don't feel completely comfortable with attempting this task, I recommend taking it to a shop and let them have all the fun of having under body grit fall on them. Replacing the seals isn't to hard but getting the one off the transmission output shaft can be very tricky without a seal puller and various other tools to pry it out and to drive the new seal back on. Same goes for the input on the transfer case.

mujgy

 

[nuclearpenguin]

is that shaft up in the crevice though? i dont wanna diagnose it as that then find out its something else

 

[mujgy]

Yes, here is a diagram of what the AWD transaxel looks like inside.

 

[mujgy]

Now unless its leaking from the input on the transmission, (where the clutch is) however the dripping would be on the bottom of the bell housing. It could also be leaking from the drivers side front drive shaft. If you had some more pics that are a bit clearer I could get a better look at it, however you would be able to see where it leaks if it were the drive shaft.

mujgy

 

[nuclearpenguin]

i think its the output shaft seal on the transaxle. i took it down to a shop and they're gonna diagnose it in a couple days then ill go from there.

thanks!