What a happy time I've had this week. After finishing up a little project the other night I decided to take a short drive to a fried's home. I looked over at the Jag to see a puddle under the car. Hmmm.. I don't recall having the a/c on, besides the puddle wasn't in the right spot for that. I reached under the car, stuck my hand in the puddle (about one foot in rough diameter) to find it was engine oil. Lovely.

We jacked up the car and found the oil to be coming from the bottom of the bellhousing. Start the engine, a small stream of oil pours out. Shut down the engine, check the dipstick - about half-way down. Look behind the car to find a nice stream leading out the driveway to the road. Lovely.

So I had the car towed. After work tonight I popped the trans out to find the rear main seal had 'shrunk' enough due to age and heat that it simply decided to slip back from its bore and grace me with an oily mess. Lovely.

I'm writing this not so much for sympathy but rather as a 'head's up'. Whenever you have your trans' out you might want to consider having the seal replaced while in there. And make sure the galley plug above the crankshaft is secure while you're in there.

I was pleasantly surprised how easy the trans' is to remove. However, I could have easily been more pleased to not find the torn trans' mount and cracked driveshaft donut...

 

I almost thought I was on a Porsche forum when I saw the title to the thread. The rear main seal is a common problem on many Porsches, but I've never ever ever seen it mentioned before in relation to a Jag.

 

Dang beav, you've got to really stay ahead of that to-do list on your car, its winning at the moment I suppose the speaker upgrade gets dropped farther down the list eh? The car is in good hands, of that I am sure.

I don't even want to look at my transmission mount...every other rubber thing on my car has perished over the years, already replaced one of the engine mounts a couple years ago..I wouldn't be surprised to find the trans mount in similar condition. Got a pic of yours so I can see what a 'good' vs 'bad' one looks like?

 

Man you're fast.

But, it was a lovely post

 

It could have been a lot worse - I could have easily seized the engine so I consider myself extremely lucky.

If it hadn't been for one frozen nut on the exhaust removing the trans' would be about a 75 minute job. I should have gone straight to the torch (to heat the nut, not cut it off) instead I piddled with it for about twenty minutes or so. Trans' was out in a little over an hour and a half. Having the car on a hoist is a definite advantage.

The to-do list grows and shrinks daily. Most items are just fiddly little things. The front speakers, wiring and amp are finished and sound very good. I began making fiberglass enclosures for the subs but wasn't happy with the first prototype, saw the weather turning nice and decided to table that project until the fall. I'll just get by with the 12" momo in the trunk, plus I left a lead in the seat belt pocket so I can put it in the back seat if/when I want. Right now I'm considering the fact that I'll never use the back seat for anything more than a package shelf. I may just have my upholstery guy work with me and turn it into a sub enclosure/package area. I guess I could go to the junkyard and get a couple TEDs (cheek chillers/bun warmers found in seats) from a Lincoln or Caddy and make a couple six-pack coolers to flank the sub...

A cool little function I hadn't considered when I installed the T-605 was that I can control the radio volume, music selection, etc. from my phone, up to ~30 feet away from the car.

 

That is my current project this month, as a matter of fact! I'll let you know how mine goes, new thread obviously will be created.