'65 727 Trans Leak

[Omni]

Good Day all and Merry Christmas
With work/upgrades progressing on the "Barge' ('65 Newport). I am now turned my attention to an annoying problem that I have dealt with for the past couple of years.
There is a transmission 'weep' in the area of the tail housing. The speedo o-rings have been replaced and the pan and park cable gaskets/o-rings have also been replaced. Fluid will collect on the mounting bolts of the tranny mount.
In researching the shop manual, it states that there is a gasket behind the plate that one removes to access the snap ring to remove the tail housing.
This area is directly above the tranny mount. I believe that that is the culprit that has been plaguing me. The down side is that to access this you have to remove the cross member. While that is not a big issue, in order to remove the cross member, you have to unload (and possibly remove) the torsion bars due to the mounting system that was used in '65. You cannot simply remove the mount as there is insufficient clearance.
The exasperating part is that I just reset the torsion bars when it was aligned.
My question is: Has anyone else encountered a leak in this area? If so, what was the cause?
Thanks to all who respond.
Omni

 

[65CopCar]

I have never heard of unloading the torsion bars in 65, but I guess anything is possible. I know I have taken transmissions out of 65 cars when parting them out, and I know I never relieved the torsion bars. Others will probably have better feedback.

I actually had the exact same leak on a completely fresh trans in my race car. My trans mount was saturated. I ended up with a wrong reaction support during the rebuild and had to pull the trans out again. Plan on installing it this weekend. We just changed the gasket - should take care of it.

 

[Omni]

Good Morning
I found a picture on the internet that hopefully shows the area that I'm talking about. (I am proud of myself for figuring out how to save internet pictures). This is NOT my exact tail shaft but for illustration purposes it will work. The area I'm looking at is the oval hole. The service manual says that there is a gasket under that plate (not pictured). To access this you must remove the mount (the two larger holes). To remove the mount, the cross member must come out. For that to happen, the torsion bar mount (bolts to the cross member must be removed). I hope that a picture is worth a thousand words. Thanks to all Omni

 

[Sixpactogo]

It has been a long time since I swapped a transmission in my 65 Sport Fury but I know I didn't touch the torsion bars. Here is a pic of a spare cross member I have. The blue arrows point to the bolt holes. I think if you put a jack under the tail shaft, remove those four bolts and drop the cross member, you should have access to you leak.

 

[Big_John]

Good Morning
I found a picture on the internet that hopefully shows the area that I'm talking about. (I am proud of myself for figuring out how to save internet pictures). This is NOT my exact tail shaft but for illustration purposes it will work. The area I'm looking at is the oval hole. The service manual says that there is a gasket under that plate (not pictured). To access this you must remove the mount (the two larger holes). To remove the mount, the cross member must come out. For that to happen, the torsion bar mount (bolts to the cross member must be removed). I hope that a picture is worth a thousand words. Thanks to all Omni View attachment 631341

There is a cork gasket under that plate. It's about 1/16-3/32" thick.

I don't know any reason why it couldn't leak, but it's a pretty robust gasket. There's two flathead screws that hold the plate on... and I'll bet that the screws are loose. If you could get at the screws, I'd say to just tighten and try it, but since you have to pull the mount off etc. to get to it, best thing is to change the gasket.

 

[3175375]

Maybe you can jack up the transmission, after removing the cross member bolts, to gain access to the screws with a right angle screwdriver?

 

[Omni]

Good Day All
I mustered the courage to attack the leak. As the torsion mount is attached to the cross member. I unloaded the T bars as a safety precaution. I am doing this without a hoist so I am up close and personal to where the action takes place.
One the bars were unloaded I placed a bottle jack under the tail shaft, jacked it up until it hit the floor. Once in place I removed the ten (10) bolts that secure the cross member to the frame. Didn't have to fully remove it, just drop it about an inch on one end to get access to the tranny mount. With the mount removed the two phillips screws that hold the plate are easy to get at.
The gasket was as hard as a brick and it appears that at some point some black RTV was smeared on it. Anyway, I cut a new gasket, made the screw holes with gasket pinches dabbed on some gray RTV let it skim over then re-installed.
Total time was about three hours. One hour was spent crawling around to chase sockets and other tools that always seem to end up just out of reach.
Still have to fire it up and top off the tranny fluid. Fingers crossed.
Omni

 

[Big_John]

I was looking for something else on eBay and spotted this. Gasket Output Shaft Bearing Cover Fiber. | eBay

I know.. You just cut a gasket (I would have too). Just thought it might be worth posting if someone else is having the same issue. Hard to beat the price!

 

[Omni]

That is a great price (with free shipping) considering the others are at least 5X that.
Omni

 

[D Cluley]

Just to clarify something here, the '65 Chrysler & Dodges have a different torsion bar mount than all the other C-bodies ('67 & newer Imperials may have the same?)

I don't know for sure that the bars need to be unloaded, but I think it is going to be harder to get the transmission crossmember unbolted without being able to move the crossmember that has the torsion bar anchors.

 

[Omni]

Dan
In retrospect, the bars did NOT have to be unloaded. I DID unload them as I was doing this 'surgery' without a hoist. With my head and hands 'were the action is' I felt better knowing that there was no load on them.
You DO have to unbolt the torsion bar mount from the back of the cross member.
The cross member can then be shifted to allow access to remove the transmission mount.
Omni