All new tranny problem!

Hey everyone
My trusty 92' has sprung a tranny leak! It's still full on the stick, but we noticed our garage floor had a red, wet spot. I was able to just glance underneath and the transmission pan is drenched in fluid. I'm crossing my fingers that it's just the gasket, and not a seal! Records from the previous (and original) owner show that the transmission was rebuilt in 97'. I don't know how many miles were on it at that time, but I do know that sometime in 98' the car was put in storage until early 02'. The car has about 134,000k right now. When I get back to town where the car is, I'll thoroughly inspect underneath the engine to find out exactly where the leak is coming from. Assuming it is just the pan, does anyone have any advise before I tackle the job of changing the filter, gasket and fluid? This is actually a job I've never done, on any car! Thanks for any comments!

Hey everyone
My trusty 92' has sprung a tranny leak! It's still full on the stick, but we noticed our garage floor had a red, wet spot. any comments!

I assume that's full on the stick when it's hot and car is idling. If it's full sitting, it might be overfilled and you may have fluid coming out the vent when it heats up.

If you're changing fluid, put car up on ramps or wood blocks (I don't like jackstands) to give you a little more room. Spread plastic (Lowes has large sheets in exit area for your car when carrying messy loads) under the whole engine area. Loose bolts on pan evenly all around. Then loosen at pointed end of pan more to allow most oil to drain into your pan. You may have to pull down slight on pan to get seal to pop loose.

Remove pan, clean with paper towels. Pull filter off by rotating and wiggling. I use a screwdriver to pry. Pry out little sealing ring the pan slips into. Replace using vaseline to lube seal, then replace new filter.

Use old rubber gasket again. Place pan and tighten very gently. It's like 20 inch-pounds of torque. That's 1.6 ft. pounds or so. Tighten in steps going around and around.

Spread plastic (Lowes has large sheets in exit area for your car when carrying messy loads) .

If I may, what I found that works great is cheapo disposable roasting pans, there's one that's just big enough I bought for $3. Plastic is fine, but when things go unexpectedly and messy, and you move the plastic, you're still stuck laying in puddle ya know?

Also, it seems like they stopped doing this lately, but the felpro filter and gasket kits used to come with plastic guide pins that make putting everything together a sinch. If you get lucky and happen to find a kit with these, save them they can be used in many applications.

[QUOTE=wrightz28]If I may, what I found that works great is cheapo disposable roasting pans, there's one that's just big enough I bought for $3. Plastic is fine, but when things go unexpectedly and messy, and you move the plastic, you're still stuck laying in puddle ya know?
QUOTE]

I use the oil drain pan. It's round and large in diameter. About 5 inches deep.

Roasting pans--good idea. If you unscrew the tapered end of the pan more and use it as a funnel for the oil, you get better results hitting the pan.

I have used sewing thread on a couple of holes through the rubber gasket to hold it in place. Other times I didn't use it. Just pull sideways on the sewing thread and it breaks and pulls out after you have a couple of bolts in each side.

I have my ryno ramps (I don't like jack stands either) The level is good because the car's been driven and after periodic check-ups the level has always been fine. I'm surprised to hear that the old rubber gasket is to be reused! They must be durable to take on all that pressure and heat. Thanks for the help, I'll try not to make too big of a mess!

If it has the hard rubber molded gasket reuse it for sure.
They are good for 3 or 4 or more fluid changes.
The best thing they made for years.
You might want to look the trans oil cooler lines over real close to. They are bad on leaking.
MT

MT-2500 was right on for checking the cooler lines. The end of one of them is deteriorated. Its a slow, small leak, but enough for the airflow to blow the fluid all over the oil and tranny pans! Thanks for the tips, everyone, I'll keep them all noted when I finally actually change the fluid and BOTH cooler hoses!

Thanks for posting back and letting us know what you found.
Do not let the cooler line go to long some of them even can blow all of the way off and make a big time leak.
Good luck MT