Fluid leaking from bellhousing

[kenwheeler]

I have an '87 ext cab 4x4 with an FM 145 5 speed trans and a 2.9 motor. I replaced the trans, clutch, pressure plate, throwout, flywheel, master cylinder, slave cylinder and the line from the master to the slave. I got the trans up, two bolts in and prior to hooking up the PITA fluid line (I'm currently figuring out a better way to hook up that nitemarish college engineer designed bad joke) it started leaking from the bell housing. I took the trans back down because I thought possibly my new slave cylinder was messed up and put the old slave cylinder back in. Same thing, two bolts in and before I can get the third bolt in, it starts dripping. This all happens before I hook up the fluid line, once I hook up the line you can just watch the resovoir fluid level drop. I guess its possible to have a bad slave cylinder that wasn't bad when I dropped the trans and a new slave cylinder from the parts store thats bad fresh out out of the box. Or is it possible to mess up a slave cylinder because I'm a backyard mechanic and don't really know what I'm doing.