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Date:         Fri, 1 May 1998 23:36:29 -0400
Reply-To:     John Anderson <vwbus@MINDSPRING.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <Vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         John Anderson <vwbus@MINDSPRING.COM>
Subject:      Re: Leaky Auto Trans
Comments: To: BRUCE LYONS <brulyons@IX.NETCOM.COM>, vanagon@vanagon.com
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

Leaking where?

That is a real optimal question, there aren't many places for ATF to go, and all are pretty obvious, depending on which it is, you may want to take action REAL fast.

First could be leaking somewhere trivial like out of the pan, obviously only a minor inconvenience, new gasket, change your filter anyway.

Another good place is past the seal on the torque converter end. This is pretty obvious, will be slinging ATF all over the engine compartment/firewall cause the cooling vanes on the converter make a real nice centrifugel slinger thingies. If everything at the juncture between the engine and tranny is covered in ATF, this would be the problem. Ugly and not good for all the hoses, wires, etc in the area. But mostly harmless. You got to pull the tranny, but it is only a $5 seal, maybe a new converter bushing, not a big investment.

Now a not so immediately, but pretty obvious place, is leaking past the seal on the other end. This is leaking into the final under pressure. THIS IS MAJOR SHIT. If you haven't yet found an external leak, pull the fill plug on the final, if ATF mixed with not a whole hell of a lot of gear oil comes running out (which it would at a pint a month) you need to do something now. Finals aren't cheap, seals are, auto trannies even are to some extent. Driving at this point is blowing $500 on $10 worth of parts and a day of your labor to install the seal.

Final place I believe is out from the governor somehow, but I have never removed a van governor, nor observed a leak there.

Anyway if it is an obvious external leak, it is at the most annoying involving a day labor to replace the converter seal or an hour labor for the pan seal. If it is internal into the final, it is a lot more important to salvage what you got, and hope that you caught it quick, can replace the seal, drain and refill the final, and get a lot more time out of it.

John vwbus@mindspring.com


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