michael j wright

Just finished WP/TB job last week and while I was at it found and thought that I had solved all oil leaks. After driving for awhile found a spot on the floor of the garage and for the life of me, I couldn't find it. Took the OB over to a freinds shop today and finaly found a leak on the drivers side cam housing between the housing and the distruibutor housing. Dosn't look that hard to do, but would apreciate in advance any advise as to what to look out for, or any tips that would be of any use.


Thanks again-Mike

joejoe

Basically you are going to do another timing belt job. There is a rubber seal that will harden and leak over time. You need to lock motor, remove belt , remove timing gear and key. Make sure of timing orientation beforehand. on driverside you need to remove distributor also (ought to change that seal also. Make sure of rotor orientation. Next remove front cover of cam housing (3 bolts) Pull cover off shaft. You will see a hardened rubber gasket inside. There is also a small (what I call) rubber like hose seal for the oil feed there, replace this also. Parts needed are: seal 999 113 282 40, o-ring 52x4 999 701 425 40, sealing ring 928 105 184 00, cannot find dist seal #.

This is assuming that the cam tower gasket is not leaking, this is for the front only. If the cam tower gasket is leaking you still should do what was mentioned, however tower must be removed. That consists of undoing bolts on outside, and the ones on the inside. Inside ones are removed by emoving outer caps using allen wrench, and then inner bolts (also allen, but smaller. ) The outside ones can be difficult due to lack of room. When bolts are removed carefully remove tower. If lucky the lifters will stay in place. Do not mix these up. I used a tiny bit of permatex on sealing ring, if you do do not use too much and close oil hole.

A suggestion.... if doing one side you really should do the other. Hope this helps, Don. Also part numbers are from pet. Double check for accuracy for your car

chewy8000

This is exactly what happened to me on the 81'.

First- the cam gear seals went on drivers side so I did both sides.

Second- cam tower seals went a few months later.

Third - Few months after that ended up full top end rebuild when passenger side head gasket went and filled the valley with coolant.

Now this could just be crappy luck but the point I'm trying to make is if your going to keep the car save yourself the trouble of doing all this a couple times. Rebuild the top end and do both sides.

soontobered84

Chewy, THAT is come crappy luck.

chewy8000

Yeah definately sucked but it made me aware that if all the seals were starting to go south from the car sitting you can pretty much guarantee the headgaskets are going to be on the list.