Is it common for the front seal to give up on heavy hauls? After arriving home from pulling my 32' travel trailer on a 350 mile highway trip I noticed a trail of fluid in the driveway. The leak appears to be coming out of the front of the transmission. I checked the fluid level and it was down just alittle so I don't think it had been leaking for to long. The trans temp never rose and the fluid is not burnt so I am thinking no damage to the unit???

 

Yes, it happens fairly frequently. Changing the front seal for an aftermarket seal made of Viton is the long term fix. It requires removing the trans to change the seal. Sometimes a new bushing is required, and once in a while the torque converter shows some damage and also needs to be replaced.

Another approach is to improve the trans cooling. Replacing the stock air to oil cooler with a cooler from the 6.0L truck usually is all it takes.

 

If it were me, I would replace the pump gasket and o-ring while the trans were out.

 

I recently had the same problem. in my case I had the converter goand the vibration caused the bushing to go and then the seal. you do need to pull the trans to replace the seal. however if you do end up needing to replace the bushing you will need to pull the front pump out and split it to push it out. It is relatively inexpensive fix if you do it yourself and I would hate to see what a shop would carge you to fix it.

 

Thanks for all the good advice. I have decided to just go ahead and get BTS to rebuild my transmission. It is a very big step, and expensive one, but since I am using my truck to many pull a 34' RV this will be one less thing to go wrong. Sort of eliminate the "weak" link!

Brian is also going to install the 6.0 cooler.