Should I have fluid in here?

Hi, I'm just in in the process of dropping my gearbox on my 1988 90 so I can slide it back in order to give me enough access to replace my clutch folk in the bellhousing, whilst dismantling bits in the interior I had to take the transfer lever and housing off the top of the box and found that the recess it sits in is one third full of a redish liguid (looked like power steering fluid), does anyone know if there should be any liqid in there and if not any ideas where it may have come from? I've tried to upload a picture of the place where the liquid is from someone elses previous post (not my vehicle) and if I've uploaded it correctly you will see that this one has no liquid in. |Also I obviously have to undo the rear propshaft where it meets the rear of handbrake drum assembly and this I have done with no problems but the rear of the propshaft has one of the four nuts and bolts that just will not undo and I now have rounded the nut and bolt heads a little. Is there anyway I can compress the front of the rear prop (off the handbake drum) back the 30mmish I need so it slides over the bolts and drops down without having to remove the rear of prop or is it a grinder to the imovable bolt? Many thanks in antisipation Mark!

the oil has come from gear box which does the same oil as your pas system,its splashed up onto the selector lever and runs through to hi/low diff lock levere housing ,there is a oring on this shaft which is obviously worn but i wouldnt worry too much very common and would take years for oil loss to become serious,the oring can be changed by removing shaft through core plug in rear of selectorr housing but removing pin and grub screw on shaft require really good tools ive broken quite a few snap on ones doing them but you might be lucky,with prop nut get sharp chisel and split nut across the flat side from top of nut to bottom,when you get good should be able to split with a few hits

Thanks for that, by the sounds of it won't need the grinder then. I'll probably leave the O ring on the shaft for now if it's not too serious as I've got enough other bits to do! Could I then use the same fluid I use for PAS as gearbox oil or is it slightly differeny? Thanks again Mark

the same dextro 2 automatic transmission fluid