1993 Aerostar with a front transmission seal blow out issue.

[Tangwystel]

I want to start by saying I know virtually nothing about car repairs, so if I sound like an idiot, that is because I am one.

I bought a 1993 Aerostar that only had 35K miles on it last week. I took it to my mechanic who changed the transmission fluid, the serpentine belts, and the rear bearings (can't remember what they were called but the car vibrated badly). He also fixed the door handle and replaced the mirrors with awesome large ones.

This was all great and i was looking forward to a long and beautiful relationship with this van.

Second part of the story: My job consists of loading up the van with craft show items and driving over the mountains. This did not go well. I got up the first big mountain and the transmission fluid was leaking and I had to get towed back home. The car stopped accelerating, due to the lack of fluid.

Anyway, my guy told me that there was a problem with Fords and the gasket not holding up against a build up of pressure in the transmission, and there was a fix he could do which involved drilling a bigger vent hole (I could be totally screwing up the interpretation here). He said that might solve my problem and it might not. Also, he did not know how damaged the transmission ultimately was. When the transmission fluid was filled up, the van ran fine, normally, and did not seem to have a problem shifting.

So, my question to you experts is this: Is it worth trying to fix, or should I just sell the van to someone else who is going to be a less demanding user? Is this a fix that people use? I'm not questioning my mechanic's ability, but I am concerned that I'll do this fix ($500 out the window) and the van still won't be trustworthy carrying a load.

What is your experience on this type of thing? i bought the van specifically to carry loads, so if it's not going to be able to do that, I need to sell it. I used to use a Mercury Villager and it never had a problem going up hills fully loaded.

Thanks

 

[BrooklynBay]

Welcome to this forum! Do you have a 3.0L or a 4.0L engine? How did you find a 1993 with only 35K miles?

The front seal blow out issue is pretty common, but there are ways around it. The front of the transmission where the pump is located is called the bellhousing. There is a drain back hole that could be enlarged. The front seal & bushing should be replaced as well. In the past, it was necessary to send the bellhousing to a special machine shop to cut the bushing while it was in place, but now there is a special bushing which doesn't require this special type of lathe. I could provide more information on the special bushing & front seal staking if necessary. Check the coolant level before you start doing any of this work. Low coolant in the radiator could cause the transmission fluid to overheat, and blow out the front seal. You might want to install a heavy duty transmission cooler if you do a lot of hill climbing.

 

[Tangwystel]

Thanks, The van was originally owned by a small college print shop, so it was basically just driven around campus.

Do you think it's worth fixing then? If I could get it to be reliable in this way, it seems like it should have a lot of life left in it.

 

[BrooklynBay]

It's worth fixing if that's the only thing wrong with it. Post some pictures of it.

 

[hardt]

Tangwystel, twice I have had the exact same problem as you with my 1993 Explorer with the transmission dumping about 4 quarts of atf when driving at higher elevations. And like you, these problems happened after I dropped the transmission pan, replaced the transmission filter and filled up with new atf. In my case it happened at about 6,500' elevation. This happened on two different occasions at almost the same place on the road. Before that this was my work vehicle and I made numerous trips up to 14,000' elevation with no problems at all. I've checked temperatures before and after the atf cooler and radiator and found nothing suspicious. At this time I am thinking that the atf that I used is at fault. I bought the generic atf from Walmart and it is supposed to be compatible with the Mercon atf that the owner's manual specifies but now I have my doubts. I don't have a problem at normal elevations and up to 2,500' elevation but apparently at 6,500' . the lower atmospheric pressure and the reduced air cooling properties of the air aggravated the situation. If you find a solution to this problem please post them and I will do likewise.

I have seen posts before that describe this problem but they were not recent nor have I seen any fixes to the problem.

Thanks.