While I was in the area, I figured I would replace the original rubber guibo and center bearing. The center bearing replacement was straight forward, but the guibo... Not so much. When I got a closer look at the rear of the transmission I realized I had just opened Pandora's box. The guibo was actually OK. (I still replaced it as it looked like the original.) but the drive shaft snout bushing was shot. This allowed the drive shaft/guibo to move enough to eat into the rear housing. When I removed the shifter console I also noticed the mounts were shot and both mounting holes had been mangled by a previous repair attempt.
I cleaned the area completely so that I could monitor for any possible future leaks. I repaired the shifter console mounts and replaced the shift shaft seal. Knowing that a 5-speed conversion was planned, I repaired the transmission housing with JB Weld around the new seal instead of a replacing the rear housing. (As of Fall 2013 it has not leaked a drop!)
The bad drive shaft snout bushing had damaged the transmission shaft. I de-burred and polished the shaft.
Drive shaft snout bushing rebuild.
New shifter console mounts and rebuilt shifter console. (As long as I was 'in the neighborhood' I might as well make it right too.)
The new rear transmission mount changed the engine/transmission angle so now the down pipe connected to my IE header was rattling against the bottom of the car.
Again, I knew I would have a complete new exhaust system at some point, but needed a fix to solve the immediate issue. Enter the MIG welder... With some careful measuring I added/removed a section of pipe to give the body clearance I wanted without changing where the downpipe connected to the rest of the exhaust system.
Awesome work! So much attention to detail. That is one lucky beemer.
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