My 95 SOHC is leaking gear lubricant from the seal to the transmission housing, has anyone else had this promblem or know what kind of seal is used there/what would be involved in replacing it? Any help always appreciated.

Cheers-
B4S

 

If you mean it's leaking around the axle where it enters the case it's a pretty simple deal. Order up a seal (not sure on the price now but I'll know later as I had one ordered today),drain the tranny, remove the axle, pry the old seal out with a flat screwdriver or such, then drive the new one in with an appropriate sized socket or drift, refill the tranny with the proper fluid and you're good. Take care not to get the new seal crooked when driving it in.

I'll be doing this tonight as the new tranny I swapped in yesterday (and the day before - long story), is leaking around the left side axle. Oh well, I wanted to make sure it got flushed out well any way.

 

It cost me 60 bucks canadian to get 2 cv shaft seals and a throwout bearing for the tranny when i replaced the tranny in my 95 sohc neon about 2 months ago

 

Might want to be more specific on the leak location... There are the 2 shaft seals, as mentioned. There's also a seal where the gearcase meets the bellhousing, which uses Mopar anaerobic sealer (not the "torque cure"...). That means pulling the whole tranny, splitting the case, and reassembling...

Best of luck!

 

the leak is at the the meeting of the gearcase and bellhousing, i take it then that there is not a one piece seal there? Is it absolutely neccesary to pull the transmission or is there a possible means of rectifying the issue without a major headache and/or wallet draining?

Cheers-
B4S

 

JB WELD anyone? ?? Dont know if its a good idea tho. LOL........ Easiest fix would prolly be a scrap yard swap.....since it only takes me an hour or two to drop motor and tranny.

 

Are those 1st gen manuals new ventures? I know mine is on the 01...biggest pos they could ever make for a gearbox, I knew an engineer who worked there and he had a hard time not laughing hysterically when he noticed that I had a new venture box, needless to say I have already replaced mine once and have the old one in the garage awaiting a rebuild and limited slip.......my advice for you is to just let it leak, its usually a slow seep, buy some fluid and check it everytime you change your oil.... you don't want to go through the hassle of removing the tranny, splitting the cases, dealing with gasket sealer for a minor leak, its not worth it - trust me! Usually the reason why they leak is that the vent gets plugged, pressure builds when the tranny gets warm and forces the low viscosity fluid out rather easily, unfortunately there isn't really a good way to unplug the vent and I know on mine replacement involves complete transmission disassembly. If you do decide to do a rebuild, MAKE SURE TO REPLACE THE VENT!! or it will just leak again and you will have wasted alot of time and money.

 

The fist gen's use the NV T-350, same as the 2nd gen (and cloud cars, and PT Cruisers) with a few differences.

Hundreds of Neons are exceeding the "rated" torque of the stock tranny (135 ft-lbs/165 ft-lbs 1st/2nd gen), dozens of Neons are putting over 350 ft-lbs flywheel torque to it without problem, and at least 2 are putting over 600 HP to it now (torque in the 500+ range). Hardly a laughable tranny, once you get past the waste of a differential...

Don't let it seep. You can try running a bead of high-temp silicon along the seal for now and see if it helps, but the only real fix is to pull, split, and reassemble.

DC authorized ATF+4 for the 2nd gen Neons (not PT Cruisers or cloud cars though, even though the tranny is identical), despite the fact that every 1st gen Factory Service Manual says in bold letters to never use automatic transaxle fluid in the T-350 tranny because of the synchros. The proper fluid - Mopar Manual Transaxle Lubricant - is only available fromthe dealer and runs $12-15 per quart, so letting it seep is going to cost you. Yes, I've used ATF in a bind; no, I will walk before doing it again...

Unlike the 2nd gen version, the "vent" is not an air/liquid-tight seal, just a rubber plug for the fill hole, and it's located lower than the 2nd gen version (2.2 qt capacity vs. 2.5? qts). I've never had leakage past or due to the vent in over 235,000 miles of, umm, "spirited" use.

Best of luck!

 

Having become very intimate with my trans over the past few days, I have to say that the gen1 tranny absolutely does have a vent located just forward of the shift levers. I have no idea about the problems mentioned though but if it's true I wish I had of known before I put mine back together.

 

Yeah man - its true - excess pressure causes leaks - engines included due to clogged breathers and whatnot. Hopefully you'll get lucky and not have any problems.

In regards to Mr. Radar, the reason why people get away with running insane amounts of torque through the NV's is a little thing called factor of safety - nothing is designed to fail at its rated load but it will eventually fail due to cyclic loading, or what is called fatigue failure. Look into machine design and you will hear of something called infinite life - this is highly ideal and steel components are usually designed for infinite life when loads fluctuate, as in transmissions. Just because someone gets away with transmitting too much power through a shaft, gear, or bearing by no means insures that it will last any length of time. Even fools get lucky now and again. Now back to infinite life - anyone knows that there is no such thing for a mechanical component, everything is gonna break its just a matter of time. The factor of safety is an engineering fudge factor intended to cover your ***. Say you desinged a transmission shaft, built 100 test specimens and tested them in torsion to see when they would break. Take the average of the torque at failure, say 600 ft-lbs and divide by your fudge factor. Say we picked 3, we would rate the shaft at 200 ft-lbs. Now who knows where NV came up with their torque ratings and what the actual torque required for failure would be, they are in all honesty fairly meaningless numbers to the layman. Now alot of times this isnt even the way it goes, the part is modeled on a computer, loads are approximated, and the machine component is analyzed using finite element software which is only an approximation of real life to say the least. Nobody understands failure to be quite honest, and those that think they do are relying on some theory that is in all reality wrong. Even the simplest of geometries and loadings are impossible to put a hard fast number on and by no means are transmission components simple in loading or geometry. If you think they are go the library and get a book on gear design and manufacture and see how quickly you run away; you will suprise yourself in how complex something you take for granted is. I think what my friend meant in his disgust of NV transmissions was the tolerances and quality control processes used in the manufacture. Presicion = $$$$$$$$$ in the engineering world; you pay for those decimal places. And I don't think chrysler was willing to fork any more than they had to for transmission in a $10,000 car.