Oil leak gearbox

[Tonyw]

Hi all,

Thought I would share this little incident with you all. I am putting my S3 DHC back together and before I put the body onto the frame I decided to "jury rig" the electrics, fuel etc and run the engine up a few times to make sure there were no oil or water leaks from the engine or gearbox. The thinking was that with a new paint job worth countless hours of my labour I wanted to try as much as possible to minimise the risk of having to remove the engine or gear box with all that nice new paint.

I had two gearbox leaks, one from the speedo drive, the other from the front of the box, the speedo drive was easily fixed I had simply forgot to install the "O" ring. The front leak however I thought would have been from the input shaft gasket or seal but when I took out the gearbox tonight this area was dry and the leak was from the left hand bottom bell housing to gearbox bolt (looking into the bell housing from the front of it) I never realised that this bolt goes through into the gearbox so unless I seal the thread and or head of the bolt it will leak.

As I have not come across this before I wondered if anyone else has? or has someone drilled through, I would have expected a blind hole.

Tonyw

[types26/36]

I never realised that this bolt goes through into the gearbox so unless I seal the thread and or head of the bolt it will leak. As I have not come across this before I wondered if anyone else has? or has someone drilled through, I would have expected a blind hole.Tonyw

Thats normal, I always use ptfe tape and a sealent on the bolt.

[Old English White]

Hum hum , Interesting ...
I should have a look ... (if there 's a picture , this'll help . I am still no mecanic)
Christian.(Do "OEW" have a leak !?! Hundreds , I'm sure of that because I still can't keep a sealed oil can! )

[peterako]

I could have a (nearly) totally oil free driveway after I check this out

Thanks,
Peter

[prloz]

Tony,
Probably why the workshop manual states..........."use Hylomar sealer on the bolts".
Regards,
Peter.

[Tonyw]

Peter,

I was not aware that I should read the manual

Tony

[garyeanderson]

I am not trying to be a smart ass (I just am) but this is talked about atleast once before. I searched for

bellhousing bolts

http://www.lotuselan.net/cgi-bin/search ... oom_sort=0

Number 6 is the one that I wrote about before.

elan-f14/gearbox-bellhousing-gasket-t15595.html

No suggestions on the fix but its in the forum lost among the many useless post that I have made. Lik I say maybe the forum needs a bit of work to save folks some headaches.

What a bore I am, just ask Beauregard!

[fatboyoz]

Tony,
Definitely a trap for the uninitiated. After an extended restoration on my S4 DHC, it was time to put it all back together. Before bolting the gearbox to the engine, I thought it would be a good idea to retorque all nuts and bolts (big mistake). Engine/gearbox back into the chassis, body lowered onto chassis and bolted into place, hydraulics reconnected and bled, all fluids, including gearbox, refilled and car put on jack stands to finish the job. A day later and I noticed a drip of oil coming from the bellhousing. The next day it was a small pool. Couldn't believe it. The engine/gearbox combination had sat around for years without one drop of oil appearing. So, pulled everything apart again including body back off and engine/gearbox back out. Discovered oil seeping from the same bolt as yourself. Removed the bolt and the seep became a flood. Realised what I had done, so looked in the workshop manual and Brian Buckland's excellent book for resealing procedure. Nothing! (at least nothing I could find). Did a search on this site to find the solution. After resealing, I left the Gearbox on the floor, tilted forward, for a week or so to leak check it. Everything back together again and car going well.
Have since replaced the oil for Redline MTL. Smoother shifting, but oil seepage has increased.
Off to Warwick at Easter for Lotus 2011, hosted by Club Lotus QLD. Looking forward to it, as it will be the Elan's first overnight and it's longest trip.
Regards,
Colin.

Hi all,

Thought I would share this little incident with you all. I am putting my S3 DHC back together and before I put the body onto the frame I decided to "jury rig" the electrics, fuel etc and run the engine up a few times to make sure there were no oil or water leaks from the engine or gearbox. The thinking was that with a new paint job worth countless hours of my labour I wanted to try as much as possible to minimise the risk of having to remove the engine or gear box with all that nice new paint.

I had two gearbox leaks, one from the speedo drive, the other from the front of the box, the speedo drive was easily fixed I had simply forgot to install the "O" ring. The front leak however I thought would have been from the input shaft gasket or seal but when I took out the gearbox tonight this area was dry and the leak was from the left hand bottom bell housing to gearbox bolt (looking into the bell housing from the front of it) I never realised that this bolt goes through into the gearbox so unless I seal the thread and or head of the bolt it will leak.

As I have not come across this before I wondered if anyone else has? or has someone drilled through, I would have expected a blind hole.

Tonyw

[Tonyw]

Gary,

Well spotted. If I spend all my time looking up old posts to answer questions I would probably never post hardly at all and would just be 'lurking" perhaps people are not keen to ask questions or make comments because the may get chastised for NOT looking up old posts first. Now I am being a smart arse.

Sometimes it is useful to re-visit topics as some of us forget what has happened in the past, perhaps this itself is something to do with a miss spent youth or simply running out of brain cells.....

Tonyw

[garyeanderson]

Gary,

Well spotted. If I spend all my time looking up old posts to answer questions I would probably never post hardly at all and would just be 'lurking" perhaps people are not keen to ask questions or make comments because the may get chastised for NOT looking up old posts first. Now I am being a smart arse.

Sometimes it is useful to re-visit topics as some of us forget what has happened in the past, perhaps this itself is something to do with a miss spent youth or simply running out of brain cells.....

Tonyw

Hi Tony
There are plenty of smart ass comments to go around on any forum, the trick is to use them wisely and offer up a method to help people to help themselves so that their questions come with enough background info to answer them in a way the helps everyone. When I see topics re-covered time and again and no one seems to care, I find it disturbing that folks just like to waste there own time. Maybe what this forum needs a sticky topic or three on the disassembly of the Elan and the plus 2 with all of the gotcha's, "read me firsts", and "don't forgets". Another topic on how to bring back to life. And a final on of living with a running Elan and keeping it like that.
All I see folks doing hear is pissing there gums over and over and no one is learning from my or other peoples pain. This kind of stuff bugs me that you have to do the job twice, I don't know how to get the transfer of information across. After taking 4 or 8 Elans apart and getting 4 or so back together you kind know where you are going to have problems. Some I am ok at and others I let others do because they do it better than I do and know what they are doing. They have been doing it for a living for 30 or 40 years. This is the kind of stuff where I am saying there is something wrong with this forum. It's not the folks but the media that needs work. Folk?s think I am trashing them but I am not, I just think that there is a better way to answer folk?s questions before they even develop the problems. Something like preventive medicine.

Gary

[summerinmaine]

Thanks for this. I'm getting ready to re-fit the engine/trans next weekend, so the trans is still dry.

I'll go back and seal the bolts with Hylomar before I do.

[garyeanderson]

Thanks for this. I'm getting ready to re-fit the engine/trans next weekend, so the trans is still dry.

I'll go back and seal the bolts with Hylomar before I do.

HI Jim

Before you get the box back in the elan please do the following.

Get the shifter put in and put it in all gears (including reverse)

elan-f14/naff-t21798.html

Set the shifter cap to the right height that works best when you lift the gear lever to select reverse. Cut gaskets to shim the shifter cap to the right height. The ones for the engine oil cap fit I believe or cut you own. There are probably a few other things to check, maybe we ought to make a list!

Gary

[worzel]

Hi

A related story-

When I first fitted a Type 9 over 10 years ago I didn't realise that a paper gasket was supposed to be sandwiched between the bellhousing and the box.

I couldn't figure out for ages just why the box only leaked when the car was in use. When stationary- no leaks.

It turned out that on a T9 the selector rod passes into blind hole in the bellhousing- unfortunately because of oil thrown around a lot by the gears this rod was in effect "pushing" oil into a non-gasketed area.

An annoying lesson.

John

[summerinmaine]

Thanks for this. I'm getting ready to re-fit the engine/trans next weekend, so the trans is still dry.

I'll go back and seal the bolts with Hylomar before I do.

HI Jim

Before you get the box back in the elan please do the following.

Get the shifter put in and put it in all gears (including reverse)

elan-f14/naff-t21798.html

Set the shifter cap to the right height that works best when you lift the gear lever to select reverse. Cut gaskets to shim the shifter cap to the right height. The ones for the engine oil cap fit I believe or cut you own. There are probably a few other things to check, maybe we ought to make a list!

Gary

Thanks Gary!