front pump seal?

t_aldrich

t_aldrich

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Woburn, MA
ok so a few weeks ago my tranny was pissing fluid from the bellhousing.bad. getting all on the exhaust and smokeing. so i replaced the front pump seal...(sucky job to do in a cold dirty barn) and it has been fine for a while until tonight when randomly after a very quick, very easy trip in the woods.

i notice once i got on the highway going up a hill that my jeep was barreling smoke like it had done before.... pulled over and let it cool down and has been fine since....i heard that the pump and case are made of different materials having different rates of expansion and can cause a major leak if its over heated....

so its either that ^^^ or i think i over filled the trans a bit after i replaced the seal... dunno what do you guys think...
 
I dunno tim I really still think it could of been just overfilled, if you do a search on that topic you'll see ALOT of people had the same exact thing happen in the same situations and that hill was at least a .5 mile long.
 
check to see if any fluid came out the tranny vent line or if it came out of the seal area as before.

usually if the trans is overheated, fluid will come out the vent line.

did the trans actually over heat? if yes, i would look into why. easy trip in the woods should not cause it to overheat.
 
so i drove an hour to and an hour back from school today and it is still smoking.... however it ONLY smokes going up a long hill on the highway when the tranny drops a gear. it leaks very badly. however once i get on the flat it slowly goes away again....

i check the fluid when i got home and it was low...not overfilled.

the entire underside of my jeep was covered in fluid....

should i just go get a new trans or what?? i am really frustrated at taking the time to remove it just to have the same problem.
 
When you replaced the front pump seal, did you check to see if the torque converter snout had been grooved? If it had, then it wouldn't matter if you had changed the seal or not (and if it was grooved very lightly, then it would take far less strain on the seal to make it leak.)

An overheat will typically "burp" fluid out from the dipstick tube or the vent, an overfill will almost invariably come out of the dipstick tube. However, a seal mating to a grooved surface is doomed to failure, whatever else you do.
 
damn. i didnt check the torque converter for a groove....

i dunno i cant afford to have this jeep down for too long i need to get to school everyday.

should i swap the stock tires back on? and hope it doesnt leak?
 
t_aldrich said:
if the torque converter is scored can i resurface it? if yes how?

other than that do i have to replace it??
Click to expand...

There are quite a few seals (generally speaking) that have repair sleeves available, and I'm reasonably sure that the torque converter/front pump is one of them. Your counterman should be able to tell you for sure, if he's on the ball (I don't have my Fel-Pro books handy.)

The sleeve is installed with a combination of heat (to expand it) and being lightly driven on - by the time it's in place, it's about a .003-.005" interference fit, and it's not going anywhere. It's a steel sleeve with a hard chrome plate on it, so it shouldn't get grooved as easily - and you can reuse OEM-equivalent seals, so that sees to that. Instructions should be provided with the seal/sleeve kit. You may have to order the kit in (they're not commonly carried by the locals,) but they should be able to score it from a local WD and have it for you in a day or so.
 
wow,

i just called car quest...they will have one in the morning for me!

so i will repair that surface and hopefully it will be fixed...

what are the chances its the o-ring that seals the pump to the trans case?


ps thanks 5-90....huge help so far!!!
 
ok so i stopped by my local trans shop and asked about this. he said it was also a possibility that a bushing in the front pump can move and block the return hole for the oil.

so trans comes out tonight....ill post up my findings...
 
tranny came out. i brought it to the trans shop. he rebuilt the pump. apparently there was a bushing that was letting more fluid pass than could exit. he also opened up the drain hole more. trans is back in and seems fine for now....

problem fixed? i dunno but i am NOT pulling that trans again....if it leaks again jeep goes into a tree lol....
 
Fair enough.

Most parts I tell you about are going to be aftermarket, unless I specifically say they're OEMR (which I try to not suggest - since they get spendy fast.)

I've not had a "front pump-to-case o-ring" fail, but it's not sealing against relative motion of parts. Makes it last longer (like an oil sump seal or a valve cover gasket.)

I'd forgotten about the front pump input shaft bushing. Yes, that can also be a possibility (I didn't recall if the AW4 ran a "return hole" under the bushing or not...)
 
well the trans shop guy said it had a return hole...i didnt care to check for myself.

i made sure tho he checked the torque converter surface like you had mention but he said it was fine and pressure tested it as well.
 
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