Third Seal Lucky

Received a call from Caterham Midlands yesterday morning, but was in a meeting so missed their call.  A follow up email came promptly through saying that another new rear seal (the third one!) was fitted to the gearbox tail a couple of days ago.

For the third time... This wasn't the smallest or easiest of jobs... The diff and prop had to come out, the existing seal (I would write old, but it was brand new!) was removed and the new seal was refitted.  One of the main problems with replacing the seal is the propshaft guard (specific to R500's and 620R's) means that it's very awkward to get the oil seal and the prop cleanly aligned without nicking the edges which causes the leak.  

The offending article - the rear gearbox oil seal

Another new oil seal was 'extremely carefully' refitted a few days ago, the car was road tested and then left on the ramp for 24 hours.  The car was then road tested again this morning and there hasn't been any leaking whatsoever, so Caterham Midlands rang earlier on today to say that Keith could be with me this afternoon!  Great news!

So Keith arrived around 2pm, the car is now in the garage (it's chucking it down here) and 'may' get used this coming bank holiday Monday...



The Caterham is fixed and back!