gearbox and OD oil drips

i made a pan yesterday to go up under the car and catch the oil drips from my OD and gearbox. pretty simple job and only took a couple of hours. i saw the one the AH Spares sells but theirs is 100 bucks... so i had some metal... and some time.
i did not make mine to cover from the bell housing to the OD like the one AH Spares sells for a couple of reasons. i was not sure about extra heat it might create on the gearbox tunnel and right now i want to keep an eye on the little pan i have under the bell housing to see if my PCV valve has stopped the rear main seal leak at the engine. plus again having the metal to do this makes the project cheaper....

anyway easy project and here is what it looks like. nice part is you can not see it unless you are under the car as it goes between the frame rails.

you may notice the left side angle is not so square. i did this to tilt the pan in past the battery cable and brake line. i figure i can run the snake camera in there at oil changes to check the amount of oil.

but it should keep those few drips off the floor.

I like yours better than the one that AH Spares sells!

But doesn't it really stymie the guys at Jiffy Lube? :angel:

Be interested to know how the PCV worked out and whether the drip pan has any effect on retaining heat around the trnasmission tunnel. Would appreciate it if you kept us up to date.

AJ

will do.
my front little drip pan currently looks like this. it was made out of the bottom of a gas can. i would like to make a new one in the same style as the gearbox one that can sit higher up and not be seen. have to look at it again. currently this one sits down at the same level as the oil pan.

Hi All,

I appreciate the ingenuity of your creations but aren't you loosing the feal and tradition of the Healey. A Healey was meant to leak, drip and stain the garage and driveway with a multitude of oils... its part of its British heritage for frame lubrication and anti-rust treatment. What next, a V8 or a Porsche emblem?

Very nice Job,
Ray(64BJ8P1)

Don't have the head room for a lift so sorry about the quality but here's an image of my rear seal catcher. Perhaps I don't leak as much oil!!
I have to get under about once every couple months to clean it out.
AJ

Catty litter in the pan?

tahoe healey said:

Catty litter in the pan?

Click to expand...

It blows out all over the garage floor. I would sometimes put some in the drip pan on the floor.

Sorry the image didn't load for some reason. Try again.
I've heard that some people put some foam in their catch tanks to soak up the oil. I haven't tried that.
I think it's important to do all we can to clean up our act. It's not good press to leave stains on the roads/parking lots and other people's driveways. It wouldn't surprise me if more pollution laws are passed within the next 10 years that effectively ban our cars from the roads. They'll end up in museums. They're already preparing to introduce more legislation in London to keep heavily polluting cars out of the city. Won't be long before this starts to spread.
Just my view.

AJ

Why not just fix the leaks ?

I fitted a DWR rear oil seal kit for the crankshaft and that stopped the leak, its the red alloy fixing.

Good idea! I have one on mine. Wait a few miles and see what happens.
AJ

i have a rear seal kit on mine as well. cant say for sure it is working as well as i hoped.

i do know my gearbox leaks oil. right now the drip pans are easier to do than to pull the gearbox back out and try to reseal it.

To be fair I fitted the rear oil seal kit when the engine was out for a complete rebuild and performance upgrade.

Hi All,

A while back, I filled my BJ8's transmission/OD with Red Line MTL and not long after experienced a failure of my OD to engage. Since this is the first fault experienced with my OD, I was very concerned and immediately pulled the driver's seat and trans-cover. When removing the cover from the closed solenoid case, I found that the "O" ring had leaked the fluid into this housing and the solenoid's piston had become hydraulically locked by the Red Line fluid.

Draining the fluid from the Solenoid housing and maintaining the trans-OD fluid level to just below the "O" height, the trans and OD performed well and engaged/disengaged quickly. Over the following years with good performance from these units, my confidence built to decided to fully fill the trans-OD to the high mark on the dipstick again. Within a few short drives, my clutch started slipping and, although I could not determine the cause of the slip, decided to again reduce the Red Line fluid level to as prior. After a short drive, the clutch stopped slipping and held tight ever since.

With these experiences, and knowing that Red Line MTL/MT90 have a tendency to seep out of every transmission pore, I contacted Red Line Technical Support along with Bar's Transmission Stop Leak Technical Support to see if the addition of a stop leak would be compatible and appropriately added to the fluid. The response by both technical representatives was positive with their suggestion to add 1 oz. of Bar's Transmission Stop Leak Concentrate for every quart of Red Line.

Over the past 6 months, I have driven with the Red Line MT90 and Stop Leak still at a level under the "O" ring and have had no fluid loss. I am now preparing to increase the level of this fluid combination slowly over the next few months to give the stop leak a chance to affect all additional seals in contact. I would appreciate hearing any suggestions and/or considerations prior to this move.

Thanks in advance,
Ray(64BJ8P1)


























'

I've used MT90 for years and, yeah, it leaks (but not as bad as yours). When I rebuilt the gearbox and OD, I was a-retentive about using sealer on all the gaskets, but I used new O-rings from Moss on the actuation cross-shaft, and the outer one leaked and I presume the inner one does as well. I just installed the square cross-section O-ring as suggested by Roger Moment on the outside part of the shaft--the one with the little 'adjusting' lever on it--and I'll be checking to see if it's stopped or reduced the leaking. Will report my findings. I sent a couple to someone on this forum who was rebuilding his OD and asked him to let me know how they worked, but haven't heard back from him.

Hi Bob,

What is the "square cross-setion O-ring"? When renewing all transmission/OD seals sometime in the mid 1980s, I too used new Moss O-rings with the described results. Funny but the outside O-ring never leaked but the solenoid side O-ring obviously did and does. I would have replaced the leaking ring but It would require pulling the trans-OD and that is a bridge to far for me at the moment.

Ray(64BJ8P1)

Hi Ray,
The solenoid-side cover can come off with the gearbox in place. The o-ring can the be replaced. Relieve the heavy spring pressure by backing off the long bolts evenly after removing the other nuts. Drain some oil off first though. I plan to use the Quad rings mentioned next time.
Bob

RAC68 said:

Hi Bob,

What is the "square cross-setion O-ring"? When renewing all transmission/OD seals sometime in the mid 1980s, I too used new Moss O-rings with the described results. Funny but the outside O-ring never leaked but the solenoid side O-ring obviously did and does. I would have replaced the leaking ring but It would require pulling the trans-OD and that is a bridge to far for me at the moment.
Ray(64BJ8P1)

Click to expand...

I replaced the outer O-ring on the shaft and cleaned the oil off (it was wet). It has about 90 miles on it, and my OD is dry as a bone (at least on the outside); sure wish I'd known about these when I rebuilt my gearbox and OD last spring (thanks again Randy!).



It just occurred to me my BN2 has both sides 'exposed;' as luck would have it I've got it on jack stands to pull the starter

I've got some extras--had to 'bulk' order from the supplier (and tell him I had a business, which I sort of do)--if you need some shoot me a PM and I'll drop a couple in the mail.

Ray
what level is the oil at to keep it below the o-rings? is it at the fill level, below, or somewhere in between?

British_Recovery said:

Hi Ray,
The solenoid-side cover can come off with the gearbox in place. The o-ring can the be replaced. Relieve the heavy spring pressure by backing off the long bolts evenly after removing the other nuts. Drain some oil off first though. I plan to use the Quad rings mentioned next time.
Bob

Click to expand...

Nice to know. The painful part is getting the lift of the shaft operated by the cross-shaft--it operates a ball valve and is lifted by a cam on the cross-shaft--as it has to be 'just so.' It's best to measure the lift, the 'turn-the-outside-lever-and-line-it up-in-the-hole-with-a-drill-bit-method' is supposedly hit-or-miss.