I am hoping someone with much more experience than me can help. I am pretty sure that I have pinned down my leak to 2 sources, but before I remove the transmission, I want to have the replacement parts in hand. On the attached schematic, item 23 identifies the seal that looks suspiciously like one of my culprits. I suspect there is an identical seal for R-1 but the problem is that I cannot find replacement seals anywhere, not even a reference on to how to replace them. If I have to, I can use some plumbers packing rope and hope for the best, but that has not worked out very well the couple of times I've done it on other vehicles. Any advice where to look-is there something else I should be searching for other than shifter lever shaft seal?
By the way, the second culprit looks like a gasket leak under the shaft cover on the front of the tranny. That gasket is a standard part of a gasket kit so no problem there, but any advice on the process would be appreciated.
You used to get the shaft seal in seal kits, but I don't think you do any longer. There may be only 1 (the lower--number 23) used in your transmission. If that seal is shot, it will leak until gravity and the oil level have nothing else to dribble. It has been over 20 years since I worked on one of these. Contact Wade's Transmission & Gear (214-747-4868). If anyone knows where to find that seal, they'll be a good starting point. You can use RTV on the shift cover. Good luck.
~ Jon 1952 1/2 ton with 1959 235 | T5 with 3.07 rear end
Thanks for the advice and lead Jon. I reached out to Wade, he seems like a transmission encyclopedia and a great guy. He and his vendors do not have the parts, he recommends online searching until the parts pop up. I see that there are transmissions available out there but I can't justify the price for something rebuilt already and who knows what I'd be getting used. Guess I'll do some searching. Still appreciate the lead.
I rebuilt my SM318 earlier this year, and they had several different kits available. I got the bearing/seal/gasket kit, and it did have these two shifter shaft seals in it.
Sorry that didn't work for you, but it looks like you got a good lead there. I hate to give clues to anyone's age, but I've dealt with Wades over 50 years. No idea where you are in Texas, but if you ever need a flywheel surfaced, they do a great job...and unlike some others they check for runout.
~ Jon 1952 1/2 ton with 1959 235 | T5 with 3.07 rear end
I had a '55 wagon with a 3 speed and a similar problem with the shifter shaft seals. The seals in mine were cork enclosed in a metal shell. I used the "knob" end of a ball peen hammer and hit it with another hammer to squish the metal shell and squeeze the cork to decrease the inner hole diameter of the seal. Inellegant but effective.
