I was doing some poking around in the engine bay when I noticed wet spots on the frame rail and wires underneath the supercharger. Upon further inspection, I found a lot of oil gunked up on the inside of the nose pulley and almost as much on the underside of the nose itself. The MP62 doesn't have a dipstick so there's no real way that I know of to check the oil level. At this point I put the car out of commission and did some research.
Looking around the Lotus and Miata forums, I found out the there is a seal behind the pulley that tends to leak after a while. Mind you, I've only put about 10Kish miles on my supercharger. Replacing said seal is a pain in the A, but it can be done without any special tools.
I had to buy a strap wrench to hold the pulley still while breaking torque on the pulley nut. Doing this solo is no easy task. I left the supercharger installed on the engine so I could use my full weight on the wrenches (all 150lbs of me!). I read that a pulley puller was necessary to remove the pulley from the shaft, but in my case it came off smoothly with no pressure. There is also a washer between the pulley and nut. At this point I uninstalled the supercharger and set it up vertically. Next thing to come off was the C-clip; also a small pain to remove, but I got it out with needle nose pliers and a small screwdriver. Now it was finally time to remove the OEM seal.
The seal is a black rubber piece encased in what seems like aluminum. It took some ingenuity (small screwdriver and hammer) and some careful prying to get it out. A bearing is right behind the seal so caution is required not to damage it. By the way, oil won't come gushing out when the seal is removed.
Front
Back
There is supposed to be a blue ring around the edge of the seal to keep oil from seeping past. This ring was completely worn off.
I replaced the seal with a recommended Viton double lip seal. Just oil up the inner and out rings and it slides on with no problem.
Lastly, I put the C-clip back on, reinstalled the supercharger and pulley, then torqued the nut to 45 ft lbs. Took the car for a spin being sure to get some high RPM action in. No leaks!
I apologize for not including more pictures. I already had the job wrapped up by the time it occurred to me that I should have taken pics of the process. I hadn't intended this to be a how-to because I wasn't sure that I could do this on my own. Nevertheless, I think this might be good information for someone out there.
p.s. Before I did all of the above I found out that my supercharger had basically no oil left in it. I refilled with 8 oz. of Kenne Bell supercharger oil. Luckily I noticed before the bearings seized.
