I Got The Thing Apart!

OK, so I dropped the driveshaft, pulled off the Y pipe, took out the starter, disconnected the parking brake and shifter linkage, took out the speedometer cable, took apart the clutch linkage, etc.... and I managed to pull out the transmission, disconnect the bellhousing, pressure plate, clutch and pull off the flywheel. Man, that transmission is heavy when you're on your back! It took me 5 hours to get that far. Don't know if that is typical, but I thought it was not bad for an old guy lying on his back the whole time.

I think I found the cause of the chatter. The clutch and pressure plate looked clean, but there was a coating of grease/oil inside the bellhousing. Also, the throwout bearing had grease and crud all over it. The pressure plate has some heat/stress cracks on it. It looks like one of the fingers on the pressure plate is slightly bent. I'm assuming these things caused the chatter.

I've looked for the source of the grease/oil and I'm not sure where it came from. The rear seal appears dry and the transmission input shaft at the transmission was clean. I'm out of time for this weekend, but I will give it a thorough look next Saturday.

Any suggestions or thoughts on the grease that I found? Again, the clutch and pressure plate looked clean and did not have any grease on them. I want to address the problem now as I'm not planning on doing this job again any time soon. Could the grease come from the throwout bearing if it went bad (from the bearings)? Is this anything I should worry about?

Thanks,
Jim

I had a spare hour this morning, so I took another look at it. The leak appears to be coming from the oil pan gasket where it dips under the rear main seal. I do not see any leak from the rear main seal, but there is fresh oil seepage at the top of the pan.

I can't remember the details on the oil pan gasket there, but I will need to replace it. The crossmember needs to come out. Steering linkage is towards the front of the pan, but I think the pan will clear it.

Any suggestions on my next steps?

Thanks,
Jim

OK, I picked up the oil pan gasket and I'll be tackling the pan gasket replacement on Saturday. But I got thinking.....

What if I'm wrong? What if it is the rear main seal? It looks as though the oil was running down the oil pan right under the crankshaft. The flywheel was clean and if it were the main seal that was leaking, then wouldn't I have seen oil flung all over the flywheel?

Is there any easy way to make certain that I have properly pinpointed the leak? While I have it apart, should I just change the rear main seal anyway as a precaution? I don't want to do unnecessary work, but I don't want to have to do this all again because I misjudged the leak.

Thanks,
Jim