Reminds me of a guy I know who thought he would cleverly sand blast his
inboard disc brake rotors on his Citroen DS .... a week later the starter
gave out ......it was packed with sand.

Any intense cleaning, especially any sort of high intensity spray or
blast....
introduces opportunities for things to stop working.

-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of
Jack R.
Sent: Tuesday, August 28, 2007 7:06 PM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Oil leak after body work... mystery solved

Well, I finally dropped the trans today, to try to resolve the oil leak
problem which developed right after the body media blasting, and re-paint.

The Flywheel seal got contaminated by the sand-blasting media, which worked
its way in through the hole at the top of the motor.  The media chewed up
the seal, and oil and media was all over the inside of the bell-housing.
Word of advice, make sure that the hole (which I believe is used for
Automatic Transmissions) is covered or plugged before doing any blasting!

Jack R. - N. of Detroit

84 Westy, with a 2.1L syncro motor, oil leak mystery solved.

Photos of flywheel seal and the mess!

http://flickr.com/photos/77623993@N00/1262992204/