Emergency!!! Need help please!!!
 

I have a clutch problem and need some advice/help. 94' SL1 that I though had a clutch going out prematurely. But turns out it wasn't the clutch. The shaft that come out of the transmission that goes in the clutch and engine has a leak. It has a slow leaked out on the clutch causing it to start to slip. Does anyone know how hard it is to fix this leak and beings the clutch isn't soaked in trans fluid is the clutch still useable? As far as fixing the seal in the trans is it something I can do as a weekend mechanic or should I have the pros do it? I don't have a lot of money so anything to same money would be great. I have pics if anyone needs to see what I'm talking about. Thanks in advance.

Allen

Allen, I really can not anwer your question from personal experiance on a Saturn. I have never pulled a transmission from a Front Wheel Drive car and have no idea how hard it is. People talk about it on the forums so it is a do-able back yard mechanic job. I guess anyway, I hope I am never in the position to have to.
But, how do you know it is a seal that is causing the problem? If you have not pulled the transmission you can not see anything so I am guessing it is an educated guess by some one seeing fluid dripping.
Some where on the forums is a repeated posting from a variety of people who have experiance a pin of some kind on the differential (I think) comming loose and tearing a hole in the transmission casing. This of course causes a leak. If it really is a seal while the can fail due to age and mileage another source of failure is the shaft that goes through the seal wearing or the bearing it rides in wearing, causing the shaft to Woggle thus taking out the seal. This too would cause the leak. This would be a symptom of the expenses getting bigger. AS to an transmission oil soaked clutch, yup it would slip. Can it be saved? Maybe by soaking the clutch in solvent thus disolving the oil. Probably not the smartest thing in the world to do but rates right in there with other smart things I have done and gotten away with.
But considering the amount of work it takes to get to one, a replacement clutch plate is probably almost as cheap as the amount of solvent you would need to soak it in.
My thoughts is this. Having transmissions pulled professionally is not cheap. At this point in time the value of your 94 Saturn (and I own one) is probably less than the cost of fixing it.
What ever the choice you have to make at this point in time, if you have no choice but to have it fixed? It might be time to look around for another used car.

I have already pulled the transmission out and have it at a shop. They said there is a seal in behind the input shaft that rarely goes out. But does need to be fixed. I have taken these saturns apart several times and know how to do it fairly quickly so that's my benefit. However I have never taken a trans apart but know alittle about the layout of them. I wish I could find a car very similar to mine that may have a bad trans and/or engine to put all mine in because almost all my drive tran is new or rebuilt but my car has a lot of rust starting.

If money is a primary object, $20.00 bucks for a manual and you have done similar work so are probably qualified would be a good investment. The transmission is out, it is diagnosed, a manual, tools if needed and a proper place to work is in order. The almost last transmission I had a part was done in a barn, this time of year, where it was drafty and drifting snow was a problem. I got it done. Clutch plates are not expensive if you are buying them your self and probably smarter than soaking. If soaking not sure what the best thing to use to crutch it by with would be. I have done it with brake shoes where Alchohole (sp) works excellent to dissolve either rear axle grease or brake fluid. This was needed on a couple of cars i owned that were both hard to find parts for AND when found were expensive. I really would not suggest trying it with a clutch plate but if backed into a corner would do it myself. Just not sure what to suggest. Anything raspy might also damage the composition of the material used to create the clutch surface and as it gets hot it could come apart causing further damage and is still a lot of work to get back after.
A seal can be bad and not have it be a problem with the shaft. it seems to me at this point in time, a 1994 Saturn is 17 years old and the word "premature" hardly applies. If the clutch plate is almost new, then maybe I would "try" soaking in something like alcohole (spelling), but if these parts are 17 years old I would replace it. Also a 17 year old car with an undamged standard transmission? Seems to me that is a questionable assumption when looking in a junk yard. The probability of finding a standard shift car in a junk yard is fairly low and even lower to assume it is any better shape than yours I would think.

It's been years since I've worked on a transmission, but in my brief experience with a manual shift, if the clutch is saturated with any kind of oil, it needs to be replaced with a new one. They don't cost that much and the time and labor you save by doing it right the first time will more than offset the cost.

I gotta agree with Rube on this. The additional cost of the new clutch plate is tiny compared to the problems you would run across by trying to clean up the old one

Replace it and be done with it.

Put in a new one .....................