Date:         Sat, 31 Dec 2005 07:53:01 +0000
Reply-To:     Robert Smythe <r3tr0v1ru5@HOTMAIL.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Robert Smythe <r3tr0v1ru5@HOTMAIL.COM>
Subject:      Hidden ATF leak, strange shifting behavior.
Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed

I have a 90 multivan with AT I bought in June. At that time it had a ATF
leak out of the bell housing. We kept the ATF topped up as  best we could
but when it got to a low state, it would go through a strange dance when
slowing to a stop. When you braked completely to a stop, the tranny would
seem like it had gone into neutral, the revs would come up, and then drop
back to normal. When you would press on the accel to go again, again it
would rev up again, then shift with a hard jolt into low (sometimes chirping
the tires) and drive normally after that. This would happen whenever the car
was cold, (as cold as it gets here in socal in this season), but would drive
fine when warmed up. When the ATF was properly topped up this behavior went
away. My mechanic changed the bell housing ATF seal and the engine main seal
and the leak stopped, but now the shifting behavior is back. He said there
was evidence that ATF was getting into the differential, and that in another
30K or so I should have the tranny serviced. Not sure if he meant serviced
or
******SERVICED*****.

Best I can tell, the vanagon has ~90K miles on it, classic replaced odo
reading ~15K.

GoWesty says buy another rebuilt tranny/final drive although their tech page
suggests that the maintainance step here is to replace the seals between the
ATF and final drive ( at around 90K intervals no less)

I got a local quotation from a transmission specialist for a cool kilobuck
to remove and replace all seals  in the final drive. Maybe he is just
covering himself to make sure the whole assembly will be rock solid
including the bell housing side.

Are these seals on the diff or the tranny side? GoWesty suggests it can be
done by removing only the tranny. Is this a job for a mere mortal can
perform or only for the AT specialist with all the special tools? The
bentley book doesnt make it obvious. On a scale of 1 to 10, 1==mechanically
reclined, 10 == click and clack (when they still got dirty) I am a solid 5,
but this must be tempered by the sheer quantity of small children competing
for my attention. Hence the seven seater, not all full there are DMZs
between kids.

Thanks in advance

Robert