In the upper part of my bell housing where it mates up to the Type 3 British tranny is a square sided round rubber seal. It lines up with a hole in the tranny that appears to go into the tranny and just bottoms out. Is this an important seal? It is pretty flat against the bell housing (as opposed to standing proud) when up against the tranny and I seems useless. Why is it there and is it important to to replace. There are no seals available here in the US of A like it. I am trying to put it all together and just now noticed it. The recess is too deep to put an "O" ring in. Russ

[Edited on 7/27/2015 by trialsman]

All type 2 gearboxes had an integral bellhousing. Which gearbox do you actually have?

Sorry it is the type 3 with the separate BH

All I ever remember their being, between any Ford Gearbox and the bell-housing, is a thick Paper Gasket.

This one measures about 20 mm OD 15mm ID and 3.25 mm thick. It probably was 4 mm thick when new. It is black rubber and very ridged. It appears to have a metal core like larger seals do. For the life of me I can't see why it was there. Wish I was computer smart enough to post some pics.

Eureka!!! I think I found out what it is for. Looks like the shifter shaft is in the bottomed out hole and this seal keeps stuff from getting in there. So it looks like a bit of liquid gasket around it should seal it. Russ