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I recently changed the oil on my (new to me) 70 Corvette with manual transmission. It appeared it had not been changed in some time. Under the car there are some signs that there has been some slight oil leaks but nothing major.....only a drip or two every once in a while. I started the car tonight after completing some other work and noticed a pretty quick leak. The oil (it appears to be motor oil) look like it is coming from the bottom side of the car just above the rear cone part of the transmission. I have posted a picture....I know it is not good. I will try and get a better one. Just trying to figure out what kind of oil I am seeing and why all of a sudden I am seeing so much. I did not think there should be any motor oil this far towards the rear of the car.
The area in question is trying to be indicated by the blue arrows? I appears to be where the gear shift is up above....maybe?
You need to clean this area up. Get the car on ramps and run it and look for the leak. Better pictures would indeed help. Best guess the rear/ Slip yoke seal on the trans is leaking. When you changed the engine oil was the car on ramps? If so the angle of the car would have sent the gear oil in the transmission rearward and leak out that rear seal. Grab the drive shaft right on the forward U Joint location and see if you can shake or move up and down the drive shaft yoke that slides into the transmission. A worn yoke and or bushing here could cause such a leak.
Oh, and be thankful you have lubricant this far back. Your car would stop moving if it didn't.
OK. I will try and clean up the area for better pics. I do have it up on ramps now and ran it. This is how I found this particular part. Oil leaking from the rear seal would make sense, however this part is above the transmission. It is mounted (looks to be screwed in) to the underside of the car body.
I will work on cleaning and getting better picture tonight.
Alright. I tried to clean it up as best I could. It was hard to reach with exhaust and transmission in the way. I have tried to get better pictures also. Not sure how good these are but really hard to get in there to take a pic. Let me know if you can tell me the name of the part. I think it has something to do with the gear shift but was not sure why that would be leaking oil.
The first 2 pictures are the same area I just wasn't sure if one showed anything more than the other. The last picture is where the oil is making it down to and getting it oily. Although, there might be other leaks contributing to that.
I did not think that was possible either. That is the only thing that I can think of unless the leak is bad enough on the rear of the transmission it slung oil up there and that is why it was dripping from there. I was very confused. And not sure why it just started leaking after I changed the motor oil when no motor oil goes back there (as far as I knew any way). The area in the picture is right above the very end on the transmission. The only thing I thought it could be was the gear shift.
The transmission has its own oil. If the rear seal is leaking it'll hit the yoke and get slung all over the place. Back to, did you have the car on ramps when you changed the engine oil? Can you get a pic of the rear seal on the trans? Have you tried shaking the yoke?
Car on ramps, transmission tilted rear down. Gear oil runs to the back in a much larger quantity than normal running. A worn bushing and seal right where the drive shaft yoke enters the rear of the transmission could explain you issue. Can't be certain. But throwing out a best guess.
Oil Leak Question
