I made the mistake of not replacing the axle seals when i swapped in my manual tranny a couple months ago. It has always leaked out of the passenger seal and worried me because manual trannies are not easy to add fluid like autos. Anyway, i bought new seals (shortly after the swap) from nissan and COULD NOT get them in for the life of me (this is with the tranny in the car). So i gave up and put the old seals back in there.
The new seals seem mostly metal compared to the old ones. The old ones were more plastic and thick around edge of the inside and went back in very easily. The new ones dont act like they want to go in from the start, they wont sit flush and push in, I tried tapping very lightly to push it in evenly but it is just ****ing impossible.
Anyway, i thoguht maybe i wasnt patient enough last time and bought another one yesterday, destroyed it trying to get it in with a screw driver and hammer...bought another one, and just couldnt get it in so i gave up and put the old one back in.

I know there is a tool to put these in, but my friend who works at nissan said he just taps it in there like i was trying to do. It will take alot for me to get the motivation to tear all the **** back out of there and get to it again for replacement. So my question is, can the transmission leak DRY from the axle seal? or is it not that serious. I know you check how much fluid is in there by sticking your finger in the axle hole but i dont feel like taking the axle out to check this everytime i have to go filling it back up. last time i thought the tranny had leaked alot of oil over the ammount of time since i last filled it up and it didnt take much to pour in there before it started leaking out of the axle while just sitting there (meaning its full).

sorry for the lengthyness , thanks.

 

Yep, getting a seal started can be a mildly frustrating experience with the tranny on a bench. Doing the passenger side in the car becomes a torture test.

Rub a little bit of oil around the edge of the seal, tilt one side into the bore just a bit and hold that in place so it stays tilted in there. Then use a hammer/punch to strike the opposite end and slowly work it down into the bore. If the seal jumps free you need to tap more softly.

It might help to toss the seals in the freezer before starting - that slight contraction can't hurt your cause.

Dave

 

damn ...i guess it really IS that difficult then huh. I'll have to find an excuse to pull the tranny one of these days and get at it with it out. I think my 2 month old clutch might be messed up anyway...im definently not gonna try to put the seal back in with it in the car though.
do you know how serious the leaking is?

 

You don't want to get low on gear oil. IME it will leak mostly while driving, so you'll want to top off to be safe.

But unless you had the tranny bearings inspected when it was removed last, I strongly encourage you to try and get that done if you pull it. This will tell you if your leak is from a bad oil seal or if the diff is flopping around in bad bearings.

Dave

 

Yeah, i just wasnt sure if it would hit a point where it stopped leaking but still have fluid in it (get what im sayin?)
I never intended for this transmission to be permanent so i didnt want to hassle with it too much but im also really lazy about replacing something that works fine so...ftl... I'll figure something out. I saw a manual maxima at the junkyard yesterday and i think theyd only charge me like 50 bucks for the tranny so i might go try to pick that up and play with it, get it inspected ect. car was trashed though..well like most junkyard cars are.