Due to my gearbox having been to a 'gearbox specialist' (see notes on professional mechanics), the silly sods didn't tighten up the 4 bolts holding the clutch bellhousing to the front of the g/box properly. Oops ... 1.5 litres of oil on the deck after a motorway run and an enforced gearbox removal.

Having got all the bits out of the vehicle and having dismantled the bellhousing, I find that the large input bearing is somewhat loose in the gearbox housing (it can be moved about 2mm in and out of the gearbox by pulling on the gearbox input shaft). The side-to-side play at the end of the input shaft (where it fits in the little ball race in the flywheel) is about 6mm. Is this normal, or am I faced with stripping the gearbox down completely

I'm going to replace the gearbox input shaft oil seal in the ally bellhousing and the gasket between bellhousing and front of gearbox. I think I will use some Loctite nutlock to retain the 4 bolts this time.