Pat,
I've never seen oil leaking past the flywheel to crankshaft bolts,
on the Datsun Roadster's.
There is no oil pressure on the back side of the bolts, only
a flange. With the rotation of the flywheel, any oil that makes
it out of the rear rope seal will be spun out onto the bell housing.
On an engine with LOTS of blowby, needing a rebuild, the excessive
crankcase pressure will force oil out past the rear seal. On those
engines I have been able to almost DRAIN the oil out of the bell
housing. Everyting is just dripping wet with oil in there, and
enough will make it back onto the clutch. Once again, this was a
worn out engine.
The rear seal is really a two part rope seal. Just like the old
British and American cars. Correctly installed, they work pretty
well. The later L series engines (i.e. early 510 and 240Z) went to
a much improved rear main seal that actually sealed. The rope
seals work, but not uncommon for them to drip a little. A few drips
will never make it to the clutch.
Cheers,
Tom Walter '67 2000
Austin, TX '68 2000
>Having a rear main seal leak, will leak between the engine and the back of
>the flywheel. After you pull the engine and transmission, then seperating
>the bellhousing from the engine, check on which side the oil leak is coming
>from. The only way a clutch will be effected by an oil leak is if the
>bolts that hold the flywheel to the crankshaft were not coated with a sealer
>to prevent the oil from coming out the bolts, which WILL effect the clutch.
>Seperate the pressure plate(clutch cover to those out west) from the fly
>wheel, and check the center of the flywheel for oil stains. If there are no
>oil stains, then it is a rear main seal. But you stated that your clutch is
>slipping, so my bet is on the unsealed bolts. Pat 67.5 2000 Solex
|