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Tranny issues, puked fluid out the front seal but is not leaking now?

xjtrailrider

NAXJA Forum User
NAXJA Member
Location
Roanoke VA
I have been fighting over-heating issues on my 96 with 200k on it.

I went out for a test drive after adding a new cooler to it and it ran fine in 80* weather, stop and go traffic. I forced it to get hot, 250 for a brief moment to see if it would hold up. See this thread in Mod tech;http://www.naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=1100986

Bad idea! It started puking tranny fluid out the front seal but I drove it anyway and killed a few mosquitoes on the way home.

It dripped a little after I parked it but it hasn't leaked since. I drove it about 20 miles today, all stop and go.

1) I did have it slightly over-full, about 1/4" above the "hot level" cross-hatch.
2) After it got hot, it immediately cooled down on the highway
3) The fluid is coming from the bell housing, not the vent or lines.

Do you think it just expelled the excess fluid out the seal and the seal is okay otherwise?

As for the over-heating;
1) My torque converter is locking up, I'm sure of that
2) my gauge is reading a little high as compared to the IR gun that I am using to check it with. I do not know which one is correct.

Right now I'm running a small Hayden 401 cooler with a 7" Procomp fan pulling on it then the fluid goes into a Derale 26" 2 pass cooler mounted on the cross-member. They seem to be doing their job.

I'm going to Harlan in a couple of days. I have a spare tranny and TC but I just don't have the time to swap it right now.
 
No, not the seal, but breather hole inside the bell housing.

Transmission fluid expands like crazy when heated, so you always measure full when HOT, not cold.

When you final fill an auto transmission after service you under fill it slightly, start the engine and shift the transmission though the range.

Then you place the transmission in Neutural.
Get out and pull the fill stick.
Note where the "add" mark is.
With the engine running, only fill to that mark.

When the transmission is HOT and in N it will read Full.
 
Agreed, you very likely puked excess fluid out the tranny breather. 1/4" over the full mark measured when cold will cause this to happen.
 
No, not the seal, but breather hole inside the bell housing.

Transmission fluid expands like crazy when heated, so you always measure full when HOT, not cold.

When you final fill an auto transmission after service you under fill it slightly, start the engine and shift the transmission though the range.

Then you place the transmission in Neutural.
Get out and pull the fill stick.
Note where the "add" mark is.
With the engine running, only fill to that mark.

When the transmission is HOT and in N it will read Full.

Agreed, you very likely puked excess fluid out the tranny breather. 1/4" over the full mark measured when cold will cause this to happen.

That was a hot level check in neutral. It now reads just above the add line and I drove it 40 miles in town today with no more expelled fluid. I think its going to be okay but it still makes me a bit nervous to wheel it for 2 days.

I have a new tranny/TC ready to go in, just not the time to do it.
 
1/4" is a ton of fluid. I wouldn't change anything other than stop overfilling your tranny. Things are OK.
 
1/4" is a ton of fluid. I wouldn't change anything other than stop overfilling your tranny. Things are OK.

The over filling was a result of thinking i ran the tranny hot(gauge issue, not really hot) then doing a poor mans flush. I drained some out but didn't get enough out.

Then I took it to a local cruise night here in town and got stuck in bumper to bumper traffic with 2000 cars trying to cruise the same 4 mile stretch of road LOL! i got it to 250* when it started puking. Made for a nice burn out pit for the guys behind me though!
 
My AW4 puked a ton of fluid after a trip back from Va one time. I sent my jeep to a trans guy and he said it over heated. He flushed it and put a new filter in it. Gave it back to me and I put in a stacked plate cooler on and it was all good. No damage done. I have never had a gauge but to my knowledge it never got hot again. That was three years ago. I put a lot of trust in it but my future transmission reliability will be concrete when I get the five speed in.
 
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