hey,
couple nites ago after putting my newish engine back together i noticed after running it for a while a small amt of oil is leaking out the small hole in the bottem of the clutch housing.. im assuming its a dodgy primary gear seal. but before i go ripping it apart again is there anywhere else the oil cood b coming from?? or any realson why the seal(brandnew) wood be leaking?

thanks matt.

Oil can only leak from seal or housing studs and bolts or worse case your housing is cracked. What was the seal surface on primary gear like did it have a deep grove worn in it/How much primary gear endfloat did you have not too much. The seals can be damged when fitting housing to block did you put some electrical tape over the primary gear spline to protect seal lip from being damaged when fitting housing?

Nice car in the photo. Seems familiar in many ways.

Back to the question.
Almost with out doubt the clutch oil seal is leaking. If oil is dripping out the hole at the bottom then it is also getting on the clutch.

Why - ????
Is it a new seal ???? was it put on the right way around ???? That is, with the lips of the seal facing into the engine.. Was the spriing tension spring lost ????? Was the seal damaged during installation over the primary gear ???? Was the seal lip properly seated on the seal surface part of the primary gear.

You can change change an oil seal without removing the engine. If the clutch shows any signs of oil infiltration then you have to replace it - it will only fail later.

Mike

hey
shes nothing like that any more. its currently primed ready to paint.

i sorta put the seal half way in my self and the rest at morris mainia. but i didnt protect the seal by using electrical tape over the primary gear. so she cood have been damaged that way.

its just annoying because i need a special sized gasket for the cluch housing because the idler gear was binding up.

matt.

Go and have a talk to Steve at Brickworkz. The binding is related to the thickness of the spacer washer on the idler gear. They come in various sizes and you have to measure the end float to determine the thickness of the right spacer washer.

Fitting a thicker gasket (or multiple gaskets) to stop it binding means that you have probably moved the clutch seal outwards to the point where is not seling ????

Talk to Steve - unfortunately to remove the clutch housing to get to the spacer washers its a motor out job. Cant be done in suitu.

These days the idler gear binding is caused by aftermarket clutch housing gaskets being MUCH thinner than the originals.
We used to set the endfloat with different thrust washers, now you can just about do it using different gaskets.
I've seen 4 or five different size ones, all a lot thinner than the good old red BMC originals.

Hint- the time to set this is BEFORE the motor gets bolted onto the box. Bolt the flywheel housing to the box without the motor, you can then measure idler endfloat accurately with feelers or a dial gauge.
Use the gasket it will be assembled with.

<edit> typo

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DrMini- 1970 wasaMatic 1360, Mk1S crank, 86.6HP (ATW) =~125 @ crank, 45 Dellorto (38 chokes), RE282 sprint cam, 1.5 rockers, 11.0:1 C/R.

dont worry adrian at morris mainia has already set the rite amout of washers ect to stop it binding up. ill just give him a call sometime in the next couple days and see what he reccomends.

cheerz matt.