2000 Excursion 7.3 unk transmission

Quick run down on the situation. It has been terribly hot here bumping 105 degrees. I was told by a man he could see fluid leaking and it was trans fluid. I checked it and filled it up and got it to the shop.

Next day they said it was not leaking and that it probably overheated. They recommended an after market trans cooler. They put it in and off I went. 60 miles later I got fluid all over the rear of the truck. I filled it up again and got it home.

Shop says I need a new trans. I am not comfortable with that as it is strong. I have had great success with this board and would rather get the input from yall before I let go the cost of a new transmission without them even pin pointing the problem.

I will thanl you all in advance.

 

The first step is to clean it up, let it leak again, and see where it is coming from. Front of the trans? Rear? Cooler line? Pan?

 

Mark I am glad you responded. Alright the fluid is coming from the front of the transmission. THere looks to be an inspection cover on the bottom side of the transmission. I would imagine if you took that plate off the flywheel and tourque converter would be right there.

If I went out there now and started the truck it would not leak. Once it gets good and hot then it starts leaking. When I stopped in Seguin, Texas last night, it looked like at least a quart of fluid leaked out while I was inside getting more.

 

Oh and the mechanic said it is probably not the front seal. His reasoning is it would be leaking all the time not just when it was hot.

I am not knocking the mechanic. He is a good guy and has been there every time I needed somehting. Switching out a transmission because you can't pinpoint the problem is a little off of the road I want to travel.

This transmission only has 127,000 miles on it. Heck that is all the miles the truck has on it. The truck has been babied its whole life. It used to be driven by a city fire captain. He only put about 5000 miles on it per year. I bought it used through an online auction. I drive it at 1900 rpm as that gives me the best fuel mileage. That translates into about 64 miles per hour. It has been babied.

 

The mechanic feels the transmission is overheating and the fluid is coming out of a vent.

 

There is no vent inside the bellhousing. There is a seal there that is well known to leak when the trans is hot and seal once it cools down. When the seal gets older it leaks at lower and lower temperatures.

You need a new seal made from Viton.

 

Very kewl Mark! Is it the main seal? Is there more than one seal? Or better yet which one do I tell them to replace? Thank you for the help btw.

 

It's the torque converter hub seal. While they are in the there, a new pump to case gasket and torque converter hub bushing would be good, too. Also make sure they look at the surface of the torque converter hub where the seal rides. If it has any damage the new seal will leak, too.

 

I will print this out and give it to them. Thank you Sir!

 

Make sure that they replace the bushing. If they don't it wont be long before the leake comes back. It is hard to believe that they don't know this. It is a very common thing. You will find a lot of post in here on the same kind of problem. I had a 1995 F150 with the same problem. I ended up gettin it rebuilt because I ran it out of trans fluid and felt it was better to get it done because I probably did some dammage.