My 1995 transmission is leaking oil from a hole above the transfer case's output shaft, inside the bell housing. Gear oil gathers on the inside, then makes its way to the outside, leaving puddles under the car. Oil also runs along the driveshaft to the rear adding to the puddle. I've attached a few pictures of the hole.

I was wondering what DSMTuner members would recommend to "plug" the hole. I'm guessing a rubber plug would fail due to heat and chemicals in the gear oil. I've read on here (around 2012) about some who would weld the hole shut. Without consulting anyone, I thought sticking a self-tapping, very short bolt into the hole with some Red Threadlocker ought to do the trick.

Anyways, I'd appreciate your thoughts or advice.

Thanks in advance.

Those are holes from you breaking components inside your transmission. I would suggest you have the transmission torn down and assess the damage.

Yup as Tim said, something went through the front diff to cause that. It's time to open it up before it gets much worse.

twicks69 is the professional tranny rebuilder guru on here. You'd be wise to listen to his advice.

Thanks everyone for your replies. I really appreciate all the replies, especially from twicks69.

The trans is scheduled to be torn down.

Has anyone tried using Durafix, Alumoloy, HTS 2000 or Aladdin 3 in 1 to plug a hole or crack in the cast aluminum bell housing of the W5M33? Some have had success using Durafix and a MAP gas torch (higher heat than propane?) on a valve cover in a 4g63T, 45psi boosted in racing conditions.

I called a couple of mobile weldors too - "Job's too small", "got a three month contract" and "wouldn't touch a cast, aluminum transmission with a ten foot pole" were the answers given.

A bit of recent history with my transmission and transfer case:

Both are new rebuilds with 60 miles on it (not broken in yet, so gently driven). I noticed the leak at the 24 mile mark. If it wasn't for the gear oil puddle under the car, I wouldn't have known there was a problem; there were no unusual sounds or vibrations.

In the mean time, I was told that it appears as if this hole was drilled and then tapped crookedly. This was the observation of the first transmission shop to do the RE & RE.

I took the Talon to a second transmission shop (first one got too busy to handle the oil leak) a few blocks from the first shop. The 2nd shop pulled the rebuilt trans and supplied the photos, which helped me understand what the 1st trans shop was talking about. The trans is still at the 2nd shop - trying to figure out how to reliably plug that hole (before tearing it down this Monday, 08 April 2024).

Thanks for reading this far.

That damage is typically from losing a tooth off of a pinion gear in the front diff or spinning debris in there from a previous failure and it failed. That is not from a drill hole. It needs to be fully disassembled, cleaned, welded by a TIG welder with 4043 rod on a cleaned case.

I was wondering why the bell housing looked so clean, either it lost a tooth as Tim said or something was lost/forgotten in the case. In either case, it needs to be welded. You'll never do it with a torch and those low heat rods, there's too much mass that it will just wick the heat away.

twicks69 said:

That damage is typically from losing a tooth off of a pinion gear in the front diff or spinning debris in there from a previous failure and it failed. That is not from a drill hole. It needs to be fully disassembled, cleaned, welded by a TIG welder with 4043 rod on a cleaned case.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the tip on TIG & 4043 rod twicks69.

jdxnc said:

I was wondering why the bell housing looked so clean, either it lost a tooth as Tim said or something was lost/forgotten in the case. In either case, it needs to be welded. You'll never do it with a torch and those low heat rods, there's too much mass that it will just wick the heat away.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the note on the trans case's mass conducting that heat away jdxnc.