I have a 1981 coupe with an automatic transmission. While under the car last weekend I found a leak coming from the knurled fitting that holds the speedodometer cable in place. It was tight, but still leaking. Is there some kind of a seal behind this fitting? Can I just unscrew it and pull it out? Will all the tranny fluid come out when I remove this? And, will I screw up anything if I pull this cable out? Thanks in advance. I had the tranny rebuilt about 2 years ago, but have only put 500 miles on it since then. Thanks again for any help.

 

Richard, I'll tell you about a similar experience I'm having with my 74. We've got different transmissions, but I suspect the engineering is similar.

I've got a similar leak on the speedo cable fitting to the transmission. Behind this is a plastic shaft with a gear that fits to the output shaft to drive the speedo cable. It's plastic because in the event of a failure the speedo fails and not the driveline. This plastic shaft has grooves to pull oil for lubrication. Finally, there's a rubber seal and a round wire clip retainer to hold the seal in position around the plastic shaft. There is no seal or O-ring on the speedo cable fitting.

This entire thing is kept in a removeable housing held in place by a Y-shaped retainer on the outside of the transmission case. This housing is a bit smaller than your palm and is sealed with a large O-ring.

Now, I assume that you are missing the rubber seal and round wire clip retainer for the speedo plastic shaft thingy. I was. Don't know why, but I suspect it occurred during the transmission rebuild before I owned the car.

I suspect that if you remove the speedo cable, you may have a little oil drip out. If you remove the whole housing you will definately have oil coming out in buckets. OK, maybe not buckets, but if you pull the housing, do get a pan and try to do this when the oil in the transmission is not hot. And in my case, this is challenging with the exhaust and cross-member in the way. Why I didn't address this last year when I had the transmission out, I'll never know (but I did change the front seal even though it was fine).

I don't think you will need to remove the housing in order to install the seal, but you otherwise would not be able to see very well what the case was. If you can remove the speedo cable fitting and slide the rubber seal down on the shaft and insert the wire clip retainer until it's snug, then your transmission speedo cable drip should go away.

I didn't manage to install the wire clip retainer when I had the housing (and almost a quart of oil) out of the transmission a few weeks ago to install the seal, but I think I can squeeze it in later before I get back on the road.

Good luck with your transmission drip. I've found that my car runs much better, and cooler, with a transmission with the right amount of fluid.

(sheeshe! 4 edits? and who will read this anyway?)


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