Hi Folks,
Took my Pinto powered car (1977 2.3 motor) out last night. It has a 3 speed auto transmission. I took her to 3500 rpm in second gear then manually changed up to D. There was no drive at this postion. I went to 2 with the stick and it drove along erratically. I pulled over to see auto. transmission fluid leaking, hard to see where from. I was close to home so struggled to get there.
Had to pull off the road as there was no drive in any position, forward or reverse. Only half a mile from home so my buddie towed us home. Lots of fluid leaked out. Hard to see where from as it was splatterd more to the left side underneath. Motor still ok but just revs up in any stick position. No drive at all.
What is my next move? Should I replace the trans. fluid and see where it is leaking from or is it not going to work??
Appreciate any help here folks?
Regards Fred
Add fluid and watch underneath probably coming out of bell housing due to front seal out I would think if leaking that fast. Fred :)
Thanks for the super fast reply Fred! Might it work again if the leak is stopped? Is it a big job?
Regards Fred
It depends how long it's been doing that & if the transmission overheated at all. In my 77 Pinto it was not driveable due to a similar issue. All the fluid had drained out. I filled it up & was able to drive it for a while. Eventually it gave out all together. The only difference is I bought the car thinking I needed to install a transmission since it did not move. I don't know how often it was driven like that or anything else. Best thing to do is to drop the pan & see what is in the bottom. If you have a lot of clutch dust or bits in the pan then it's a good bet you might need to put in a transmission sooner rather than later.
You will need to pull trans out to instal new seal. To replace seal is easy. Fred :)
Thanks for the responses gentlemen.
No oil on the trans. fluid level stick, as expected. I might just fill it up with F type fluid, start it up and look for the leak, or should I drop the pan first and clean it?
Regards
Fred
I'd add fluid first to see if you can find the leak.
If it is a 77 trans I wouldn't use type F, but rather
some sort of Dextron. It should be a C-3 and that is
what it came with not type F.
Bill
Appreciate the input on the fluid to use. Thanks.
My Chiltons book says to useType F fluid.
My Clymer also says Type F fluid.
Any comments gentlemen? I have 5 quarts of F to put in.
Regards.. Fred
According to my 77 Pinto owners manual the transmission takes type F. The same with the 77 Ford repair manuals I have.
Thanks Matt.
Fred.
Use Type F fluid. It has shift improvers in it for Ford trannies. It was always a "poor mans" Trick Shift & I used it in GM & Chrysler to firm them up a notch.
Topped up the tranny with fluid and removed the alternator that was covering the tranny oil cooler lines to see what was going on down there. Started the engine up, seemed okay, gave it over 2000rpm and a huge amount of fluid burst through a split in the cooler line. I replaced it with transmission cooler hose from Advance autos.
Started her up. drove her a couple of miles and all seems good. Just have to gunk the mess up. LOL
Regards to all. Fred
Nice to find a simple problem and thanks for the update. When people ask for help they ususally do not let us know what happened, the good, the bad and the ugly. In your case it was the ugly in clean up but the good in was just a line leak.