gearbox seal change

[swawp]

Hi all im hoping some knowledge folks can steer me in the right direction, i have a need to change a seal on the gearbox that is leaking, i believe its the reverse gear selector rod. it doesnt look to difficult but i am wondering what the best access is to do it, should it be done from above or through the wheel arch with the liner removed. are there any pitfalls to whatch out for? should the gearbox oil be drained - im thinking no it should be above the level of oil in there. ive attached a photo of the seal to help. thanks in advance for any help

[shtu]

I don't think there's an "easy" route in. Removing the arch liner doesn't get you much closer, and the battery tray is above it. Take a look and see what you'd rather deal with.

I doubt you need to drain the oil, the level is about halfway up the casing.

[swawp]

just to help anyone in the future looking to change this. you need to do it through the wheel arch with the wheel off, pop the top linkage off then clean up the selector rod before removing the seal. to remove the seal i used a 1.5mm drill bit in a Dremel as the space is tight this just fitted in and with the drill speed dialed down it was quite easy to drill 2 holes centrally into the seal they were not opposite as the space isn't there to do it but as far apart as possible will do, screw in a couple of slim self tappers and you can then clamp just behind the screw head with long nose pliers and lever those with an appropriate size screwdriver and out it came, then using a small amount of gearbox oil to lube the inside and outside of the new seal slide the new one down over the rod and using a short ring spanner that matched the seal diameter, again using a screwdriver to lever the spanner you can ease the seal in nice and flush. A quick couple of miles test drive and hey presto not a drop leaking now. make sure you top up the gearbox oil and job done. and as shtu says you don't need to drain the oil out