Sorted all the little niggles on my L322 with just an oil leak to do. Had a look around the engine and seen a very minor shimmer at the top of the engine so bought a set of cam cover gaskets and bolt seals to fit this weekend. I've driven it 500 miles at the weekend and lost about a litre of oil that has now self undersealed the truck.....

I've taken all the covers off and climbed on the engine and the front, back and sides of the motor are completely dry....checked the PCV and all hoses are new and good condition with no leaks and the dipstick has a good vacuum. Spark plug holes are dry and can't see any positive stains etcs. However the bottom cross member is saturated and on removing the bell housing rubber hung it has fresh oil in it. I'm therefore thinking rear crankshaft oil seal???

Is there anything else I should be checking??

I have no issues in removing, stripping, building engines etc but is this possible/ worth the effort to take the gearbox out on the drive? Any one any experience?

Finally can anyone recommend a good independent in Somerset or South West and any idea of cost.

Thanks in advance for any feedback

Craig at Cam-Tech

No idea of price, he is in Florida at the moment

Gearbox removal is certainly doable on a drive although I did it in my garage. It's easier to remove the transfer case off the back first to lessen the weight (I learnt my lesson on that one, I was doing it on my own and both together were too much). Even then a proper transmission jack helps a lot. Given the room underneath to work it's actually fairly straightforward...far easier than an Integrale gearbox
If you are going to remove the gearbox to do the crank seal then I would also consider replacing the torque converter at the same time (if it hasn't been done recently) and the gearbox input shaft seal too. That will also require topping up the gearbox fluid so might as well change that and the filter too.

Thanks for the reply. Did You put the front up on ramps or does the car need to be level when raised?

I raised both the front and rear on ramps just because I had them and I wanted to make life as easy as possible underneath with the ability to have enough height to be able to move the transmission under the sill to outside the car.
That did pose another issue that it was then too high for a jack to reach the transmission in order to lower it down!
I think the sweet spot ended up with the car at off road height with 6in of concrete blocks under the rear tyres and adjusting my hydraulic ramps down a similar amount on the front (which also chocks the wheels). It was then secured with axle stands in the corners.
You could probably get away with just raising the front but the exhaust needs to come off, which if it's original, is one piece from downpipe to rear. Having some space underneath to play around with it is an advantage but not essential. Being one piece actually makes it simple to take off but a bit awkward to move, if you can make sure you have a cars length space behind and you can just pull it out like a wheel barrow with the front resting on a trolley/board/skate. I had to wrestle it out to the side as I didn't have the room. The only other bits towards the rear you need to remove are the heat shields over the exhaust in order to remove the propshaft. You can remove the centre prop bearing and just hang the prop up to the side once removed from the transfer box end.
So it doesn't need to be level but will need to be topping up and level checking the transmission fluid, you can do that afterwards though once it's back on the deck and set to off road height (door left open and axle stand underneath to stop you getting squished should an airbag decide to fail at the wrong moment).
Before you consider doing it yourself check you have a ratchet/torque wrench that can get into the flexplate to torque converter bolts via the inspection hole in the bottom of the bell housing. It's a tight squeeze and only a certain length socket/extension and compact size ratchet will fit and be able to turn without hitting the cross member below (going from memory). Nothing I had would fit but a Halfords Pro 3/8in torque wrench was just the ticket and only about £35 via a mate with a trade card (£80+ on the shelf).

Spot on bit of info, thanks

Hi mate

Could you share what type of hydraulic ramps you use, I need to remove my gearbox soon and want to fit it at home.

Matt Current
2012 Range Rover 5.0L SC Ultimate Edition
2012 Range Rover 4.4L TDV8 Autobiography
2010 Range Rover 3.6L TDV8 Autobiography
2003 Range Rover 4.4L V8 Bespoke Vehicle

Inventor of the retro fit paddle shift and many other modifications.
Creator of the custom 2010+ RR MK4 splash screen.
Creator of the Range Rover CarPC and lots more!

Founder of Range Rover Owner
rangeroverowner.com | Facebook.com/RangeRoverOwner | Latest Videos âžž YouTube.com/RangeRoverOwner

Hi, did you check the oil return pipe pair that runs down to sump near starter motor? -08 3.6 Vogue
-87 951

The ramps I have are these:
http://www.cjautosheywood.co.uk/hyramp.shtml
I bought them many years ago for working on low ground clearance cars but giving more height than a standard drive on ramp once raised up. They only safety lock at a fixed height but with some axle stands wedged underneath the platform they can be adjusted to safety lock at differing heights.
There is nothing wrong with using standard ramps as long as you can safely drive up them (chock the ramp or add an extra drive on ramp to reduce the angle helps). I've never really bothered driving up standard ramps as working on concrete chocking them so they don't move is near impossible, I've always jacked any car up first and placed ramps underneath. Unfortunately you can't jack a Range Rover up high enough with most jacks to do that (even a high level 4x4 jack doesn't get it high enough).
I used ramps as it was more secure way of doing it than potential rocking on 4 x axles stands why trying to remove large items.

kimlahti wrote:

Hi, did you check the oil return pipe pair that runs down to sump near starter motor?

After reading again.

Quote:

bell housing rubber hung it has fresh oil in it

If it was inside then possible leaks are:
1. rear main seal or it's cover
2. main oil channel plug below coolant cover
3. Upper sump gasket.

No easy options.

 -08 3.6 Vogue
-87 951

There doesn't seem to be much fresh oil on the sump so don't think it is coming down from the block - new cam cover gaskets, a good clean and a hand full of talc thrown around it to spot the leak at the weekend I think. Done this a few times on other engines and it worked well.

Just remember gearbox oil in the 5HP24 is very similar to clean engine oil, sort of straw coloured, not red like most ATF fluid...  Pete

__________________________________________________
2014 L405 Autobiography SDV8 4.4 Loire Blue Ebony interior
2011 L322 Vogue SE 4.4 TDV8 Baltic Blue. Parchment over Navy Interior. Sold
2012 L322 Autobiography 5.0 Supercharged Ipanema Sand, Jet Interior. Sold
2002 L322 Vogue 4.4 V8 Epson Green, Ivory over Aspen Interior (Fatty Offroader) Sold
-Click for Project Fatty off roader-

New cam cover gaskets fitted today and gave it a new set of plugs while in there. All looked good to be honest however all of the gaskets were quite hard. Had a good look around the back of the engine and no obvious signs of a lot of oil.

Also put it up on ramps and gave it a good clean to check where the oil leak might be coming from and noticed a bit of oil inside the bell housing inspection rubber cover, also few drips visible through the torque converter window so think it is definitely a rear oil seal........great

Out of interest what engine oil are you running?
Do you get a slight burnt oil smell every now and again?