Leaking ATF again

[hear]

Trying to track down all the ATF I was bleeding this weekend, may as well start a thread.


Background:
Moved the vent hole on my 32RH by plugging the hole behind the torque converter and putting a new hole on the top of the housing. Also installed a deep pan w/dran plug & bung for trans temp sender. All that involved dropping the trans, which means every fitting has been touched, including the dipstick o-ring.

I drove it for about a week after that work, zero issues, zero leaks. Drove it 5+ hrs to Oklahoma, no issues. Then wheeled for a few hours, no issues (as far as I know).

Some time after that I took a bad line over some rocks and ended up in a bad way. Was ON the front driveshaft, and the new pan looks like it got hit pretty hard. As far as I know, everything was ok after that. However, atf leaks have a way of pooling up in the skid and only showing up after enough has leaked to make it spill over. So I don't know if I started leaking at that point.

That evening I decided to check my fluid level (at temperature, idling in N), and it read low. I maybe should have taken another reading, because now I have doubts. It was pretty far down, so I added a quart and a half. We went back out that evening and somewhere along the way I started smelling ATF, and could see that I had puked some up from the new breather. I should mention 2 things: first, it was hot, although the temp gauge really never got up over 200. Second, there are reports of people who move the trans vent having problems with the trans puking up atf. So I could have over filled it, or it could just be me experiencing what others have experienced, hard to say. From this point forward, every time I parked, I left a spot on the pavement, usually on the driver's side, from under the skid.

Got the skid down this morning, and there is some fluid in the front drivers corner of the skid. Not much though. I've had it absolutely pooled there before, this was maybe 2 shots worth of atf.

What I've checked:

• t-case is full
• yoke seals are dry
• top of trans housing is dry (by my new breather fitting)
• selector shaft is dry (just replaced that anyway)
• seam between t-case and trans had a drop on it, wiped it up and did not return
• cooler lines are dry, but the rear most line has some play (see video)
• some pan bolts have some atf on them
• the visible edge of the gasket looks shiny, like it's wet...but every leak has a way of getting down to the pan gasket so that may be misleading
• dip stick area seems ok, although I'm pretty sure that o-ring is just about spent (I have a new one)
• There is a drop on the bottom edge of the bell housing
  • has me doubting my plug of the old vent, but I can't imagine why that would start having fluid come out of it when it never did before.

I've got it all wiped down and will check in a few hours, although it's possible I've lost enough that I'm below the leak. Ain't life grand.


Lastly, does this look ok??

 

[CharlesHS]

That transmission line shouldn't move.....
Do a thorough inspection of the new transmission pan; IF the pan is aluminum a tiny crack may have been created when the pan was hit hard allowing for seepage.

 

[hear]

That transmission line shouldn't move.....
Do a thorough inspection of the new transmission pan; IF the pan is aluminum a tiny crack may have been created when the pan was hit hard allowing for seepage.

Pan is steel. IF it is leaking, it's because it got hit hard enough to screw up the mating surface.

Regarding that line, I don't really understand that fitting. There's those plastic tabs between the line and the inside of the nut, not sure how those work exactly. But perhaps more importantly, theres no evidence of any fluid around that fitting. I would have expected it to be very wet with fluid if it were leaking, given the amount I had been dripping.

 

[hear]

Narrowed down at least some of the leak to the frigging dipstick. You may recall from one of my rambling posts where I put the tube in too far to allow it to mount up to the hole in the bell housing to keep it stable. I pulled it back out, inspected the o-ring, and decided to leave it as-is because despite being s little misshapen on one side, I didn't have a close enough fitting replacement. So I put the tube & old o-ring back in to the "correct" (?) depth and bolted it all up.

I fully expected it to leak from that spot, but after a week of driving it never did. But maybe the combination of over filling, heat, and driving through deepish water was enough to make it start leaking.

Not convinced that's the only leak, but for the time being I've got it all dried up & paper towels in place to isolate any other drips. Will drain & drop the pan to completely dry everything off and then re-rack. Maybe figure out the NSS code I'm getting too, before I fill 'er up.

 

[hear]

I re-seated the dipstick further into the hole with a new o-ring, but it's still leaking. I found a discussion about some sort of grommet that goes down into the hole, and how the combination of it plus the o-ring makes a good seal. I believe this is the part in question, but (a) it will be an extreme challenge to fit over the end of my dipstick tube and (b) the parts manual makes no mention of this piece. Rock auto says it fits, but I'm not convinced. Has anyone used such a thing before, or had any trouble sealing up the trans dipstick tube?

https://www.rockauto.com/en/moreinfo.php?pk=64950&cc=1185285&pt=10970&jsn=950

 

[MountaineerTom]

I have no experience with the dipstick tubes, but maybe you could get it clean and dry as possible, install it as normal with the o-ring but also add some high temp gasket maker near the top of the hole to assist in sealing. Something like Permatex Automatic Transmission RTV Sealant. Don't use too much so it doesn't get down into the transmission. Let it completely dry before before installing the pan and refilling.

Is it possible there is a crack in the housing near where the tube goes in?

 

[hear]

I've looked at the tube from above with a mirror and up through the hole with the pan off, and it looks perfect; no cracks as far as I can tell. I can definitely introduce RTV into the mix, but I feel like that needs to be my last resort. It wasn't leaking before I removed it, so I feel like it should be able to get back to that state OR have physical evidence as to why it won't seal up.

I keep coming back to the fact that I can't seem to get it to seat properly/fully AND have it all aligned in a way that lets the bracket on the tube line up with the hole in the bell housing. I asked in another thread that didn't get any action, but I would love confirmation on which hole it should be bolted up to.

 

[MountaineerTom]

Have you used a new o-ring or reusing the original? You may have stated this in other threads and I didn't see it though.

I'm not sure about which hole the tube for the 32RH bolts to. Hopefully some other 32RH owners can chime in.

 

[hear]

I've used the original o-ring which had a flat spot on it, and also tried a new o-ring.

 

[MountaineerTom]

Does this help with the tube installation?

 

[hear]

yes, although the bracket on my tube has a bend in it, and seems like it wants to sit on the engine side of the bell housing. But to bolt it up to the hole pictured means it's barely seated in the hole.

I currently have it drained, so I think I'll put some tape at some known height above the end of the tube and see how much engagement there actually is.