Need help with solving the various leaks on my 4.0 auto

[RavenDork]

Warning: Long post(still. Sorry)

__I have a 2001 Wrangler Sport with an Automatic Transmission, that I daily. It has a few modifications, like a lift and tires. I can answer any questions, but don’t want to put a list of everything here.
__I have 4 leaks that are giving me trouble. I’ll get in to the engine and transmission in a minute.

Pinion Seals:
__2 of the leaks are just differential pinion seals. I’ve not had a lot of luck finding a guide on how to replace them properly. What I’ve seen involves marking the pinion nut, and I’ve heard you can mess up the preload that way.
__I’ve never done this replacement before, so I’m just looking for a link to a good guide or video so I don’t screw up my differentials.

Engine:
__The third leak is from the engine, at the bottom of the oil pan and bell housing. It drips a drop or two every few seconds, but only while running, or after shutting it off.
__I’ve replaced the valve cover and I’ve had the rear main seal replaced twice, and was looking at replacing it a third time, but now I’m thinking it’s the oil pan gasket or something else entirely. I just need some help identifying and potentially replacing before I spend $1000 in labor. I’ve attached pics below, and I can take more if necessary.

Transmission:
__The transmission has been a nightmare of a fourth leak. Long story short, I screwed up with an issue surrounding the TV cable, which involved me improperly checking and then filling the transmission fluid. That lead to blown seals, and a likely unnecessary transmission rebuild.
__My bad, but after the rebuild, my transmission was still leaking. I also asked the guy to replace the RMS and he agreed, since he was dropping the transmission anyways.

__Little bit of an explanation of my experience and situation with this guy: he was the cheapest place around, and at the time, I didn’t have a lot of money to spend on a rebuild. My buddy also had a transmission rebuilt by him, and he took it back three times before finally going with a complete transmission swap. The guy has a 1 year warranty for anything related to the transmission, but I’m still a bit hesitant to take it back. I’m currently trying to get ahold of him in order to schedule a time to bring it in, but I’d like to know more about what’s going on with it in the first place, first.

__I decided to take a look and try and identify the transmission leak myself, and started with replacing the transmission oil pan seal. It was my first time doing a seal, and I may have done a few things wrong in doing so.
__One is that when torquing the bolts down, I took my torque wrench, which goes down to 20, and dropped it to 6 below the 20 mark, because I read online the bolts are supposed to be torqued to 14 lbs. I don’t know if that’s how a torque wrench works or not, so someone correct me if this was wrong, or if my measurements were wrong.
__Another thing is that, while tightening the final bolt, I heard a pop that I assume was the seal, but decided to roll with it anyways.
__I also noticed two things during this process. One was that the bolts for the pan were not even hand tight, which would’ve been from my transmission guy. The other is that one of the bolts was different from the others.
__After replacing the seal on my own, the leak slowed down a lot but didn’t completely stop. I decided to deal with it for the time being, because I needed to be able to get to work and such.

__Fast forward a bit, maybe a week or so. I go to friend’s house, and the drive back is like 30 minutes of twists and turns on bumpy backroads.
__I got home, parked the jeep, and just went inside and went to sleep
__The next morning, when I was about to leave for work, I noticed that the bolts and spacers were missing from my skid plate. Idk if it was the road, or if it was someone trying to steal something, or what. At this point, don’t really care.
__So the transmission was dangling a decent bit, so I took a Jack and a piece of wood and propped it up as best as I could while I waited for spacers to be delivered. It wasn’t all the way up, but it was most of the way at least.
__The spacers were delivered and installed 3 days later, on a Friday. I didn’t drive it or anything afterwards, in case that’s relevant.

__The next morning I wake up to go on a walk, and decide to check the transmission fluid before I left, because I knew it was leaking from the past three days of sitting and dangling.
__When I checked it, the level was maybe a 1/4 way up the recommended level on the dipstick. So I put about a quarter of fluid in and went on my walk, intending to check the level afterwards.
__However, when I got back, I found my parking space covered in ATF and threw a catch pan underneath. I’d say I probably lost a quart or two, at the least.
__I have no idea why it leaked this time, or even where it has leaked from in the past.

__My biggest problems are that I’m not the best at diagnosing issues, and that each time I’ve put the Jeep in the hands of someone else, something has been wrong or gone wrong or whatever.
__I wanna know what my leaks are from, and how I can either fix them myself or make sure someone else fixed them properly.

(I couldn’t get my phone to do indents for paragraphs for one reason or another, so I’ve done a pseudo indent with __. Hope it’s easier on the eyes at least)

Pics:
1: Bell Housing and Oil Pan dripping

2: Oil Pan Drip

3: Transmission Oil Pan, entire surface is wet with a thin layer of ATF

4: Skid Plate, dripping ATF. Entire Skid plate is also full of a thin layer on the other side

5: Where the engine and transmission join(I believe this is where the rear main seal is. It’s caked in oil, but it’s been caked in oil since I got it.)

6: The passenger side of the engine, taken from underneath

7: Passenger side of the transmission, taken from the rear, about midway up the transmission

8: Same as above, only taken from the front of the car this time

9: Bell Housing from above and from the back

10: Front of the engine by the pulleys, this is what made me believe the pan might be the issue.

11: Passenger side of the engine

12: Driver side of the engine

13: The same spot where the engine meets the transmission, only from the top.

 

[Chris]

Three things that will help tremendously:

1. Pictures
2. Paragraphs
3. Shortening the story

I don't say this with the intention of being rude, but what you just wrote is almost illegible. It's much longer than necessary and without paragraphs it quite literally hurts ones eyes!

 

[RavenDork]

Three things that will help tremendously:

1. Pictures
2. Paragraphs
3. Shortening the story

I don't say this with the intention of being rude, but what you just wrote is almost illegible. It's much longer than necessary and without paragraphs it quite literally hurts ones eyes!

Not rude at all. I’ll try to rewrite and edit it. What sort of pictures would help?

 

[Brianj5600]

Where is it leaking? Pictures are worth a thousand words.

 

[RavenDork]

Where is it leaking? Pictures are worth a thousand words.

Updated with pics

 

[macleanflood]

I did my rear main four times. First three with Felpro and the one that stuck was a Mopar and a lot of red Loctite.

-Mac

 

[JMT]

Some people aren’t Jeep people.

Take it to a reputable mechanic.

Sell it.

 

[hear]

I'm only going to deal with the trans leaks. The drip on the bellhousing is almost always from within the bellhousing. The two primary places are the pump seal (which should've been replaced with your rebuild, hopefully not installed dry) and the vent hole behind the torque converter. If you overfilled, it will likely try to spit up through the vent and drip out down the bellhousing. I would worry about that leak last; if it is just from being over filled it will resolve itself. If it ends up being the seal, you have to pull the whole tranny down (and sometimes remove & even open the pump) to replace it.

Speaking of being overfilled, I want to verify that when you checked the level you were running, warm, and in neutral. You will not get a usable reading in park or any other gear.

Virtually every other leak on the transmission will run to the lip of the pan, making virtually every leak look like a pan leak. So what you need to do is get it super clean & dry, and then stuff paper towels in & around all the places it could leak:

• shift selector shaft
• cooler line fittings
• neutral safety switch
• torque converter lockup plug
• dipstick - this one gives me a ton of trouble
• pressure check ports

Let it sit like that overnight, or maybe even just a few hours. Check for which ones are red and you'll have your smoking gun. The shift selector is a common one to leak, and will leak more than you can even begin to imagine, and will eventually fill up your skid plate. The dipstick tends to leak onto the floor and in great amounts in my experience.

Sorry you paid for a rebuild and ended up with a mess. For future reference, rebuilding it yourself is WAY easier than you think.

 

[RavenDork]

I'm only going to deal with the trans leaks. The drip on the bellhousing is almost always from within the bellhousing. The two primary places are the pump seal (which should've been replaced with your rebuild, hopefully not installed dry) and the vent hole behind the torque converter. If you overfilled, it will likely try to spit up through the vent and drip out down the bellhousing. I would worry about that leak last; if it is just from being over filled it will resolve itself. If it ends up being the seal, you have to pull the whole tranny down (and sometimes remove & even open the pump) to replace it.

Speaking of being overfilled, I want to verify that when you checked the level you were running, warm, and in neutral. You will not get a usable reading in park or any other gear.

Virtually every other leak on the transmission will run to the lip of the pan, making virtually every leak look like a pan leak. So what you need to do is get it super clean & dry, and then stuff paper towels in & around all the places it could leak:

• shift selector shaft
• cooler line fittings
• neutral safety switch
• torque converter lockup plug
• dipstick - this one gives me a ton of trouble
• pressure check ports

Let it sit like that overnight, or maybe even just a few hours. Check for which ones are red and you'll have your smoking gun. The shift selector is a common one to leak, and will leak more than you can even begin to imagine, and will eventually fill up your skid plate. The dipstick tends to leak onto the floor and in great amounts in my experience.

Sorry you paid for a rebuild and ended up with a mess. For future reference, rebuilding it yourself is WAY easier than you think.

As far as checking it goes, I’m checking it how you mentioned, in fact, the whole reason for the rebuild kinda involved me checking it improperly. So learned my lesson the hard way there.

I plan on trying to clean the surface of the transmission(and engine) of any fluid old and new, and then checking for leaks. I’ll be sure to use the paper towel method you mentioned.

Here’s hoping it was just overfilled, and that was why it was pouring. It would mean I might be able to drive it again sooner than expected.

This makes me wonder, am I reading the dipstick correctly? If the dipstick is at the “add” mark, when checking it while in neutral and warm and running, how much fluid should be added?

Edit: I checked fluid when I got home, and for clarity this is how I checked:
-Started Jeep
-Pulled the E-Brake
-Put it in neutral
-Waited until the temperature gauge was pointing in the middle
-Pulled transmission dipstick
-Cleaned it off
-Put it all the way back in until it clicked in place
-Pulled it back out, and took picture of reading

 

[hear]

I'd add a quart for sure, but it's probably lower than that.

 

[hear]

Also, you're low enough that your leak might be above the fluid line, so you'll probably have to add some to really track it down.

 

[tr21triton]

As far as checking it goes, I’m checking it how you mentioned, in fact, the whole reason for the rebuild kinda involved me checking it improperly. So learned my lesson the hard way there.

I plan on trying to clean the surface of the transmission(and engine) of any fluid old and new, and then checking for leaks. I’ll be sure to use the paper towel method you mentioned.

Here’s hoping it was just overfilled, and that was why it was pouring. It would mean I might be able to drive it again sooner than expected.

This makes me wonder, am I reading the dipstick correctly? If the dipstick is at the “add” mark, when checking it while in neutral and warm and running, how much fluid should be added?

Edit: I checked fluid when I got home, and for clarity this is how I checked:
-Started Jeep
-Pulled the E-Brake
-Put it in neutral
-Waited until the temperature gauge was pointing in the middle
-Pulled transmission dipstick
-Cleaned it off
-Put it all the way back in until it clicked in place
-Pulled it back out, and took picture of reading
View attachment 554061

A old wise man ( @AndyG ) once told me if you stop adding oil to it it'll eventually stop leaking !!!! But I just can't do that, so I just spray my entire engine with Flex seal and no more leaks

 

[AndyG]

A old wise man ( @AndyG ) once told me if you stop adding oil to it it'll eventually stop leaking !!!! But I just can't do that, so I just spray my entire engine with Flex seal and no more leaks

He’s learning. Last week he told me you can’t scramble eggs in a toaster

We are so proud of him.

 

[DuckNut]

Some of those spots may be caused by a leak a foot away. The wind can play tricks on where leaks really are.

If you pressure wash it you will have a clean slate to identify the leaks. You need to tackle the ones that will cost it money down the road first.

Listen to what hear is saying. He may not be much to look at, but he sure knows his way around the jeep.

 

[hear]

Listen to what hear is saying. He may not be much to look at, but he sure fakes like he knows his way around one tiny portion of the 1997-2002 jeep.

tweaked for accuracy.

 

[DuckNut]

tweaked for accuracy.

My bad for the misleading statement. I will copy and paste your corrected sentence in the future.

So I do know to listen to you about auto trans...should I disregard all other advice?

 

[hear]

My bad for the misleading statement. I will copy and paste your corrected sentence in the future.

So I do know to listen to you about auto trans...should I disregard all other advice?

I would take all my advice with a tablespoon of salt.

 

[ChasUGC]

One thing to do as suggested is to pressure clean under it. Then, once cleaned, put a piece of cardboard under it when parked. This way you can find out exactly what area the leak is coming from. Otherwise wind could blow fluid on other areas and when you stop it drips down. Thereby, making one think it is leaking elsewhere.

 

[ChasUGC]

Double post. Please delete.

 

[hear]

One thing to do as suggested is to pressure clean under it. Then, once cleaned, put a piece of cardboard under it when parked. This way you can find out exactly what area the leak is coming from. Otherwise wind could blow fluid on other areas and when you stop it drips down. Thereby, making one think it is leaking elsewhere.

Cardboard isn't going to help you locate the leak itself. These leaks want to run to the nearest low point and then drip from there. Stuffing paper towels keeps helps quickly idenfity the source...once you have the thing reasonably clean.