Depression brought on by trans problem.

[Nocturnall]

So I think I have what seems to be the fairly common front pump seal leak. It doesn't start right when you turn the car on, it takes a few mins of driving to get a little heat to it then the car urinates transmission fluid all over the road, then it starts to slip out of gear and hurray a whole basket of annoying problems. So I know, drop trans, inspect it, see if that's it, and replace. I'm unsure of how much transmission fluid I lost enroute to my girlfriends parents house were I do my repairs. On the way I must have slipped out of gear 8 - 10 times and each time I had to push the rpms higher and higher to get it to go back into gear. When I got there, I jacked the car up, all 4 tires off the ground, check no leak, had someone get in and start it no leak, rev it no leak, then put it in drive and give it a little gas no leak. I added some trans fluid just to see if it was empty or something. Did that and the leak resumed making a mess once the vehicle was started and reved a bit. So I plan to replace the seal, change the transmission filter while I have it out and probably for the most part empty of fluid. Then add an external cooler and remote filter either at the same time or in the near future. Anyone think I caused serious damage to the transmission driving it to the in laws house?

 

[410Fortune]

You cannot change the front pump seal without removing the trans from the truck

Yes driving it while its slipping out of gear due to low fuild can do damage

 

[Nocturnall]

What kind of damage? Damage to what? Any way to tell before I reinstall the tranmission? If it would need clutch packs or something I'd like to do that while it's out instead of reinstalling it, finding I've damaged things and having to redo it all. Would putting the cooler help prevent this from happening again? I don't think that it was caused by low coolant as I've had no other problems related to overheating or cooling and it always has the proper level of coolant in the resevior.

Also which front pump seal do I need? 4r70w or a4ld? The only ones I find listed for the 5r55e are $50 and I thought it was supposed to be a $8ish part?

 

[BrooklynBay]

Check your fan clutch for play. I had this problem during the summer while I had the A/C on. The van didn't seem to run hot, but ATF poured out from the front seal. Also check the return hose from the front seat to the overflow port in the rear. My A4LD doesn't have this. I'm not sure if your 5R55E has this (maybe this part was first installed on the 5R55W)?

 

[Nocturnall]

There is an overflow port but it's most definatly coming from between the trans and bell housing....I might have forgot to add that in in the original post

 

[BrooklynBay]

The crankshaft to flywheel spacer on the 4.0L could cause this problem if it cracked. The OEM version is made out of powdered iron. Sonnax has an improved version made out of billet steel.

 

[Nocturnall]

and if that's the case then there's a really good chance of damage to the torque converter correct?

Sonnax spacer ordered. Personally once I drop this trans out to fix whatever is leaking I'd rather just change that while I'm there then take it down in a few months to change it when it'll probably break....or with my luck the day after I put everything back together it'll shatter into millions of itty bitty peices somehow blowing up the engine.

 

[BrooklynBay]

Not necessarily. It could cause the front seal leakage problem. Read about it here.

 

[BrooklynBay]

There is also another possibility which could be a worn front pump bushing. Read about it here.

 

[Nocturnall]

I really hope it isn't the front pump bushing because that goes way beyond my ability and tool resources and financial resources at this point in time to have a shop do it for me.

 

[BrooklynBay]

There are only 2 places that I'm aware of which perform this service. I wouldn't jump to do this so fast. Have you ever replaced the front pump seal in the bellhousing?

 

[Nocturnall]

No but my brother law to be is a Ford Master Senior Tech so I would think he could help me with this. The seal in the bell housing though could be a little difficult without the 2 arbor press, milling machine, and other expensive sounding machines. My girlfriends father whom's house it's at right now has also been repairing and rebuilding cars since the 60's so I hope he's done one of the seals himself, if not again I could always ask the brother to give me a hand.

 

[BrooklynBay]

Which place did you order the spacer from? They make a 6 hole, and 8 hole spacer. The older ones have the 6 hole design. I'm not sure of the year when they started to use the 8 hole design. If you could get a picture of your flywheel from a parts site, then you could tell which one you need.

 

[BrooklynBay]

The seal is the easy part. The bushing is the part which needs a special lathe to make it concentric (everything has to be lined up correctly).

 

[Nocturnall]

http://www.transmissioncenter.net/PinHole.htm

I was looking on http://www.transmissionspecialty.com/ for it but I couldn't find it on there first off, nor could I locate prices on anything.

And I meant bearing in the bellhousing. If there are only 2 places that do it, I imagine the actual bearing isn't $2.50, labor, probably shipping to and from because something like that I want a shop with a reputation, I don't want to find out the shops reputation by letting them touch this, wouldn't it be cheaper to just buy a new bell housing....not that I know how much a new one goes for....

 

[BrooklynBay]

It's a bushing. A bearing has 2 parts which are made to move with a roller, or balls in the center. There is also a 2 way shipping charge in addition to the cost of the machining, and bushing.

 

[Nocturnall]

Yea so I wonder what a new bellhousing would cost. I tried looking it up on a few websites and haven't seen anything yet. Again I hope the front seal just blew out due to over heating, as I'm reading more on this I'm getting more and more nervous that something is seriously wrong.

 

[BrooklynBay]

The newer style bellhousings in the 5R55E are a little more improved, but it's not just a swap. You would also have to replace the front pump. Anyway you already have the 5R55E, so I don't want to get you too nervous. I would suggest that you read the Project Frankentranny thread which shows some 5R55E bellhousing pictures. The beginning of the A4LD rebuild diary also shows some pictures, and explains to bore out the converter drain back hole. It's possible that your 5R55E bellhousing might already be bored out.

 

[Nocturnall]

I appreciate all the info, I'm the kind of person that something like this happens I think the trans is dead and I'm screwed. After reading around on the site I was feeling better about it and now I'm terrified again with this whole bushing thing. I'm hoping when I open it up it was just the heat thing, I replace the seal, replace the fan clutch if need be and add a remote filter/cooler as cautionary steps and I'm set to roll.

 

[BrooklynBay]

So which spacer did you order since they make 2 types? Did you also order the front seal? Do you have the seal puller/installer tools? It's possible to do this without using specialty tools.