Leaky Transmission/Shift Linkage

[Quinion]

Hi Pelican Parts forum!

So, I'm new around here although I've been lurking for a quite a while. I recently took my '84 944 out of storage and am working on restoring it bit by bit. I am an accountant by trade, but love diving into projects and learning new things. I've been doing a bit of forum shopping lately, and it seems that the crowd here is very active and helpful.

My first job has been to work on the brakes, and while under the car I noticed a lot of oil deposited on the transmission. I went under the car to do a little more investigation and snap some better photos. What I ended up discovering was that there was oil sprayed up into places where it couldn't possibly have simply dripped, leading me to believe that there might just be one leaky seal somewhere and the oil is getting tossed all around the under-body by the axle. The car has been on jack stands for 2+ weeks now and I haven't seen a single drop on the garage floor. I have also taken care to wipe up much of the oily residue that has collected in order to see if I can pinpoint the leaky spot.

Does anybody here have any suggestions on what is likely leaking? My guess would be the transaxle seals need replaced, but is there another seal somewhere that could be the culprit? One oily spot is on the opposite side of the shift linkage. Does the plate on this opposite side have a seal that may be leaking, or is that likely transmission oil that has been sprayed all over? I've looked all over for information on the shift linkage seals and can't find anything definitive. Finally, I would guess it would be smart to do a total transmission fluid change. I have no idea what is currently in there, or when it was last changed... certainly not while I've owned the car (8 years). I also have all the repairs records for it going back to purchase, but do not see transmission fluid change ever being done. Can any issues arise from mixing transmission fluids if I were to replace? I've read that replacing the fluid can sometimes open the door for new problems.

[Slam]

Definitely a shot transaxle output shaft flange seal. That oil is throw from fluid leaking onto the CV, which spins and distributes the fluid as you see here. Yuck.

An easy job with some pitfalls. The biggest issue is removing the cheesehead bolts holding the CV to the output flange. There has been A LOT written about this, and given how rusty your bolts look, it's gonna be fun. WYIT you may as well clean and repack the inner CVs and maybe even flip them so they'll give you some more miles.

The other pitfall is that there's no stop for the tranny seal on the passenger's side of the transaxle. You have to drive the new seal in straight and measure the distance from the lip of the tranny opening to the seal. I'm sorry but I don't recall the spec.

There's one bolt that holds the flange onto the diff gear - it's a 6mm allen head.

Hope this helps. At least it'll get you started!