ALERT: Leaking oil shaft seal

[solar350z]

I was looking under the car last night and noticed the front(head) part of the transmission was wet and there was a lot of oil around the rubber drive shaft seal.

I know this is a common problem,but is it safe for me to drive it around for a few days until i get the part in because it's my daily driver? I also

noticed i have some missing bolts on the mounting bracket of the transmission as well, and this is only on the LEFT SIDE of the tranny, is that also causing the leak??

Also, do i really need to order the o ring and driveshaft seal if i were to just find something in the local part shop such as a sealant.

[Jonathan]

Pics are way too small mate, cant see.

I'd most definatly fix the bolt issue right away esp with a V8 !!!

Apart from that you might just have a weep from the gearbox - mine weeps on the GT3, loses about an egg cup over 2-3 years. It's unlikely to become a river overnight - only get worse and wose until you have to do something about it.

Two things on the driveshaft.

1. Your leak might be coming from the roll pins

2. Your leak might be past the main seal

If 1, then easy job - take the drive shaft off and replace the o-ring and roll pins

If 2 harder job and do all of them - You cant reseal the gearbox driveshaft with sealant

Here's some pics - same gearbox so dont worry:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jonhimself/sets/72157619525054983/

This is why you need to replace the o-ring, it is actually imperative which is why I did the picture :

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jonhimself/3618150118/in/set-72157619525054983/

And this is the blurb on the roll pins, it's actually a very easy (although time consuming) job but needs to be dont correctly, cutting corners leads to having to do the job again and or ending up like my gearbox on the GT2, dry of oil !!

Luckily the boxes are pretty hard.

[wookiecj]

On your second point, if sealant was an adequate substitute for an O-ring and a driveshaft seal you would think that would have been a factory standard... it wasn't, so it can't be.

Edited May 5, 2010 by wookie

[Günter]

yelly-type sealand on the splines (prior to fitment of driveshaft) can work, -and does work on mine

As said many times, as soon as the O-rings become harder and have an imprint of the driveshaft-seatingface the sealing effect will go away over time. For this (and to reduce the precission & worktime needed to seal the rollpins with dabs of silicone inside and out) I allways prefer to clean [with degreaser, acetone or simmilar...] the splines on driveshaft & differential, and add silicone or something similar with resistance against the gearbox oil on the splines [the area between differential and rollpin hole needs to be covered]. This way you have not to worry if oil is passing the old o-rings, and would therefore run on the splines and drip out on not perfect sealed rollpin ends.

If the real 'driveshaft-seals' are leaking you could stiffen up the sealing lip , by stiffen the spring inside -but that's not recomendet for long terms ..especially if there really is some imperfections on the sealing face on the driveshaft joint. So inspect that first !!

The dust covers on the selector shafts will work as an 'breather' over time, especially if the real breather-port [should be this plastic thing on RH front side , next to the clutch cover ?!] is blocked.. .

[solar350z]

Also, for the mounting brackets. I am missing 2 of the bolts from the mouting bracket but only on the left side. It still looks like its sealed pretty tight together.

[Jonathan]

Man, they is sexy hands