Leaky 6spd trans, pls halp
 

I have a leaky 6spd NB trans.

Drain and fill plugs are not leaking. Leak appears to be coming from somewhere on driver side of trans, is running down the side of it to the point shown here with the hilariously badly drawn arrow. Circled area is where the bulk of the horror show is. I have ruled out the seal between the case section as the cause so far.

I do not find it likely to be the turret, because the areas of the tail section below it are largely dry. Transmission is not overfilled. (is probably low now, due to leak.)

Car leaves same amount of fluid on the ground whether it's parked for 2 hours or 2 days (5" round spot on driveway, so not inconsequential). I can smell it (and see it) on the exhaust while driving. Does not appear to leak further if i clean up the transmission when cold with brake fluid and leave it. Stays dry.

Things in line/above sloppy area:
1) Breather
2) Reverse switch

I have noticed that the heads of the bolts look wet every time i look after driving it. Unsure if the fluid is just being caught around the bolt head flanges, or if it's actually leaking through the bolt threads? If so, this is NOT happening on the other side of the transmission, so i'd find that pretty strange. All bolts are tight.

Halp? What do? Need to press this thing into DD service, as my Land Cruiser is currently smashed.

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/960/4...ec4600de_b.jpg
6spd trans by concealer404, on Flickr

Had same on my msm. Its the switch iirc

I've also had mine leak around this area. Mine ended up being the rtv used to seal the tail shaft to the main case of the trans (the seam directly below your circle). Hopefully your gremlin is the switch as mentioned above, I had to pull my trans to bust the tailshaft off and re-seal.

I was scared it was the seam at first, but after i cleaned it last time and then drove, the seam appeared to stay dry, and all the wetness is after the first ridge on the tail housing.

That said, this transmission has been opened, it does not have the factory sealant.

Has someone removed the switch in the past? I broken two (or maybe 3?) when doing my rebuild. It didn't take much pressure. I would replace the crush washers on all the hardware in the offending areas. The bolt on the top does retain a bushing on the inside (IIRC, so you will likely want to lay the transmission down to make sure the bushing stays in place.

Transmission is in the car, which is what is making this annoying. Don't have time to remove it, so i'm not likely to chance that smaller bolt.

I don't know if the switch has been removed, and i'm seeing conflicting reports if it takes a washer or not. Can't seem to find the switch at all in parts diagrams.

https://www.jimellismazdaparts.com/i...ze/1N49931.jpg

The switches are under the "Electrical, HVAC, and Entertainment, Engine Switches and Relays". Looks like the 5 speed calls for crush washers, but the 6 speed doesn't. Not sure why. The switch is pretty high on the transmission, but it should get a little oil up there.

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...2f964a5002.jpg

Update: It was the sensor at top. Had snapped off. The logistics of how this occurs is beyond me, but transmission no longer leaks.

When you say snapped off, do you mean like it was gone and you basically had a direct opening into the transmission?

No it was there, barely. It had cracked 98% of the way off from the threads, so when i tried to mess with it, it snapped off entirely. Then i got to extract the threads from the case. Good times.

It was cracked pretty wide though, so fluid was just puking out of it.

Same problem I had with two of them. The second one we were being careful when tightening it and it snapped. I think we ended up adding a crush washer (now shown on the parts diagram) and just snugged it.