Leaking 6 speed. The final solution

[Tony Martyr]

My box has leaked since new from the speedo drive seal in spite of 2 new shafts and 3 new seals.

I have fitted a VDO speedo working off four propshaft mounted magnets. This arrangement, mounted on a home made bracket pop rivetted in the shaft tunnel has survived trackdays and foul weather and the Readout has been calibrated with a GPS.

I have had the engine out to fit a new clutch and, of course clutch thrust bearing, so the unused speedo shaft was removed and a specially machined aluminium plug fitted into the shaft seal. The plug was just over size on the seal ID and has an intergal collar so it is held in place by the original circlip. Result is that there is absolutely no drip lubrication of the rear suspension any more.

At the same time the aluminimum trust bearing sleeve or snout was replace with the newer steel sleeve version. The original which has done 22000 miles and suffered two bearing failures showed signs of asymetric wear from the sleeve of the bearing as did the clutch fingers. It was not close to a failure but worth changing pre Le Sept trip