Transmission bellhousing gasket
 

Ok, so I noticed a leak from the clutch cavity on my SL1. Being a mechanic, leaks really piss me off. So, out came the trans to replace the input shaft seal. Clutch was jacked when I bought this car anyway, so I can address that too. The problem is, I have to remove the bellhousing from the trans because the input shaft seal has to be pressed out from the back. Good ole GM has discontinued the gasket, and the only thing I can find online is a complete rebuild kit that comes with a bunch of stuff I don't need.

Anyone have a source for one?

Thanks in advance,
Rob

So, no gasket between the bellhousing and the trans. I just used grey permatex. Trans is back in the car. I'll finish up Thursday night.

Got everything back together last night, started the car, and had a crappy feeling clutch pedal. I never broke the hydraulic clutch system and I kept the slave cylinder below the master cylinder to prevent air from entering the system. Well, it still got in there. Too much to ask for a bleed port on the slave cylinder. Anyhow, no leaks, no CELs, just waiting on a Luk master/ slave cylinder assembly and I'm back on the road. While driving the truck is a nice step up, the thought of grinding down 200 dollar each tires just for getting around is getting painful.

Congrats on the repair, but I don't understand how you got air in the hydraulic system if you didn't open it. Any idea how that happened? I'm asking because I'm curious, I don't have a standard shift in either of my vehicles.

I'm asking because I also do not understand you you can get air into what I thought was a closed hydraulic system.....UNLESS....placing the slave above the master would encourage any air in the system to migrate to the slave as it is the highest point in the system (at that time).

Either that or it has something to do with the slave piston seal once you remove the slave from the tranny; under normal operation is it has constant "negative" pressure (being pushed back into the slave cyl by the fork) to which it develops an equal and opposing "positive force"; once slave is removed, there is no static negative pressure so there is no positive pressure developed against it within the slave cyl, so there is much more chance of air sneaking past the seal since the pressures inside and outside the slave cyl seal are similar.

The above, upon reading, seems wrong but it flew out of my head so it is in fact likely wrong.

The true answer will therefore be that much more enlighting :)

I'm guessing that by the slave cylinder extending more than it has ever extended did some type of damage to the seal. It is a pretty light designed piece.

Edit:
The system isn't exactly closed. When your foot is off the clutch pedal, the system is open to the master cylinder reservoir. When you press the clutch pedal, this closes the system and pressurizes the line. I'm sure there is a check valve somewhere in there. This allows the system to be self adjusting. And what I mean by not closed, is that it is vented to the reservoir. Not like a closed circuit hydraulic system of say an excavator cylinder.

Ok, holy crap have I had crappy luck with parts.

So, put a new clutch in the car after I dropped the trans to fix the input seal. When it was all back together, the original hydraulic assembly went tits up. Bought an auto zone kit and installed. Still was hard to get in gear, but driveable. Ordered a new GM replacement from the local dealership at a toon of $230.00. Installed it, same problem. Still very hard to get in gear. Figured there was something wrong with the clutch I installed. Went through the ass pain of returning a used part to amazon. Ordered a new clutch kit. Installed that today. After about 5 hours, I get it all back together, hit the clutch. Same e-fn problem, won't go in gear. Took the master cylinder out of the firewall and pushed it in all the way. Push the car in gear, it rolls. Put the master cylinder back in the firewall. Push the clutch in, car won't roll in gear.

So, my friends, whatever crappy chinease sweat shop is making replacement hydraulic clutch assemblies for a 2001 sl1 got the rod length wrong for the master cylinder. Took out the welder, and added 1/4 in to the clutch pedal linkage, and now the car drives like new. So the moral of the story, if you replace the hydraulic clutch assembly, and you can't get the car in gear afterwards, it probably isn't moving the slave cylinder enough. Verified this by doing the clutch arm travel measurement. With the unaltered master cylinder linkage, I had .1875 clutch arm travel. Manual says a minimum of .42. After alteration, I had .52 inches of clutch arm travel.

So even the AC Delco part is hosed?

Was wondering a few years back if it was worth it to spend the 200+ on the AC Delco version for my 95 SC2. I did, and had no issues.

However, the 97 SC2 has more miles on it than the 95 so I'm waiting for that fateful day.
_______

I just looked at Rockauto, and 91-99 are the same, and 2000-2002 are the same, but they are not interchangeable.
So I guess your unfortunate experience may await many 2000-2002 s car owners.

Let's hope it was just a bad lot.

I can't see a GM dealership ordering parts for its own vehicles that don't fit and then doing nothing about it.

O wait, we're talking GM here.

Horrible experience, but great troubleshooting

Yeah, just sucks that I had the trans out of the car three times. I've put in at least 10 clutches in various vehicles and never had this much trouble.