Coolant from the Clutch Housing?????

88XJ, BA10/5 tranny, 252K miles.

Got home from a mountain bike ride and noticed a fast drip underneath my XJ that appeared to be coming from the gap between the bell housing and engine block. I poked my finger in the spilled liquid; it was cool to the touch, slick, and didn't have a strong discernible oder. I stuck a drip pan underneath the vehicle for the evening. I figured that my internal slave cylinder may have given up the ghost. However, upon checking the pan this morning, I found that approximately 1/4 cup of antifreeze (classic green color) had collected in the pan.

Does anyone have a clue where this might be coming from? Looking in the engine bay, that are no apparent leaks that might cause a drip from around the clutch housing. But, my coolant bottle was empty. No signs of moisture inside the vehicle like a leaking heater core, and the engine has been running at normal temps.

There is a expansion plug in the block behind the separator plate. Likely culprit.

How difficult would that be to replace? I assume I would have to pull the engine to do so?

pull the engine or trans.

Best to probably pull the engine and replace all the freeze plugs. One leaking is an indication that the others are close behind.

Here's the bad guy Digger87xj was talking about.

It might also be the core/welsh/frost/freeze plug in the back of the head.

Either way, best to replace ALL of them--except the cam plug--with brass plugs.

Rats. That leaves me in a conundrum on whether I really want to tackle this. The engine is a reman that I dropped in around 12 years ago. Its running just fine, but everything else (BA10/5 tranny, steering, leaking tranny case, rear suspension) is pretty near original that it should/needs to be replaced. Time and resources are at a minimum right now.

Given that you have a BA 10/5, I would line up an AX15 to replace it and do it all at once. Or at least check on the clutch + throwout bearing + slave cyl etc while it's out.

kastein said:

Given that you have a BA 10/5, I would line up an AX15 to replace it and do it all at once. Or at least check on the clutch + throwout bearing + slave cyl etc while it's out.

Click to expand...

Have you seen the "kit" that Advance Adapters has for changing from the BA 10/5 to the AX15 or NV3500? Part no. 27-3510AA for a mere $705.99?