seeking some tips on the removal of my auto tranny (86ea turbo loyale/2wdr.)..I got gear oil leaking out of the front of the tranny and also a little from where the drive shafts hook-up too..rear main is also leaking and I guess I could also redo that seal...seems like a lot of work to replace a few dollars worth of seals, but it seems like it has to be done...other then removing the tranny lines/electrical and vac lines/cv axles/exhaust,... is there some unforseen problem that I might come up against that is not mentioned in the repair manual...other then that I will be doing it in the driveway

Gear oil is probably leaking past the stub-axle seals. These should be replaceable in-car. Some knowledgable folk have recently discussed having never seen a leaking rear main on an EA82, and nobody chimed in to say that they have had a bad rear main seal.

 

If you really want to pull the tranny, there shouldn't be any nasty surprises other than stubborn bolts. The torque-converter/flexplate bolts can be a pain to break loose (if corroded). You also want to make sure that the TC stays with the tranny as you separate engine and tranny; pulling the TC loose from the tranny means that you have to make sure it goes back on correctly or nasty (non-repairable) things will happen to your tranny.

Thanks for including the other things I missed to pull apart just to get to the tranny seal plus other warnings..I have plenty of wrench turning experience, but no experience with auto trannys...upon closer inspection, there is no motor oil that I can see coming from the rear, and there should be no problem changing out the cv stub seals..much easier to add gear oil from time to time and hardly worth it to go to the trouble just to change one seal behind the torque convertor etc...now that I have a realistic perspective of the situation..I can move on to another project...

Gear oil is probably leaking past the stub-axle seals. These should be replaceable in-car. Some knowledgable folk have recently discussed having never seen a leaking rear main on an EA82, and nobody chimed in to say that they have had a bad rear main seal.

 

If you really want to pull the tranny, there shouldn't be any nasty surprises other than stubborn bolts. The torque-converter/flexplate bolts can be a pain to break loose (if corroded). You also want to make sure that the TC stays with the tranny as you separate engine and tranny; pulling the TC loose from the tranny means that you have to make sure it goes back on correctly or nasty (non-repairable) things will happen to your tranny.

...hardly worth it to go to the trouble just to change one seal behind the torque convertor etct...

I doubt that this seal is an issue as it should be an ATF seal, not a gear oil seal. (It definitely is on the later 4EATs; can't say for sure on the 3ATs.) If you do the stub-axle seals, remember to do one at a time and mark/remember the positioning of the side bearing retainer (which, IIRC, needs to be removed to access the seal). Not doing so can screw up the diff settings.