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The drip of oil on the bottom of the transmission case under where the differential resides most often originates from the "front" main seal and/or oil pump o-ring, which reside under the crank pulley. The oil runs down the back of the transmission to drip off the lowest point.
Because your noise happens the same regardless of whether the thing is in gear or not, it's more likely coming from the clutch as Bloodnose said, or from the front of the transmission, where the chains, 5th gear, and what the Saab transmission rebuild manual terms the "constant mesh gears" reside. First check the clutch. After that, it is easy to pull the covers off the transmission to see if you notice anything remarkable. Try the top shaft cover of the primary chain case, then try the fifth gear cover.
UNDER THE TOP SHAFT COVER: The primary chain top shaft is held in place by a small aluminum spigot, which can crack or wear down if your upper primary bearing is bad. Wiggle the top sprocket. If there's any more than a tiny bit of play, this is your problem. You can also run the car while this cover is off, to see if the sprocket is moving around. There should be a gang of three chains on the sprocket. Look for fragments of chain, try to see if all three chains are there.
UNDER 5TH GEAR COVER: Look for stripped gear teeth on the gears. Make sure the snap ring is in its groove, retaining the collar that holds two shafts together.
If you don't see anything out of the ordinary, then it may be the cluster gear - these are known to get stripped of teeth if too much power is put through the transmission. This would be under the dipstick cover but is hard to see. Reverse gear is easy to see, but it will likely be chipped and you must not let this cloud your judgement. Look deep in there. There's a shaft below and further in than the other shafts that has multiple gears molded on it. This is the cluster gear.
Based on the fact that your clutch still works, I bet your problem is in the transmission. On the basis of sheer likelihood, I bet the cluster gear is your problem, but it's not unheard-of to have chains break and primary bearings cause cascading failures.
posted by 75.69.61...
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