I took my 97 F350 on a trip Saturday. About 25 miles into it, I noticed copious amounts of smoke behind the truck. Pulled into a truckstop, and looked underneath, there was a steady flow of ATF pouring out, in the area of the torque converter/front seal. I managed to make it back home, but not until several stops, and 14 qts of fluid.
Funny thing, after the last fillup of fluid, it appeared to stop leaking. Took it to a friends shop, he'll look at it Monday. Any thoughts on what happened?

About 3 weeks ago, there was a small transmission cooler on the front of the radiator that was leaking, so I bypassed it. But the regular cooler in the radiator is still there. Did that have anything to do with this problem? BTW, it's a 5.8 with the overdrive automatic.

 

Yes, bypassing the cooler did have something to do with it. But it just sped-up what was going to happen anyway. The trans got a little hot which weakened the seal and made it start puking. The stop-and-fill trip the rest of the way home probably let it cool down enough that the seal started sealing again. But it has not "healed" itself. That seal will do it again. Maybe tomorrow, maybe 3 months from now. If you plan on keeping it for a while, you need to put that repair on the top of the list. Glad you made it home!

 

Once the seal gets hot enough to leak, it needs to be replace regardless of weather or not it leaks after cooling.

 

I had an '89 Mustang years ago that developed the same kind of leak. Happened a couple times then it stopped…. right after I sprayed my buddies freshly sealed blacktop driveway...

 

About 3 weeks ago, there was a small transmission cooler on the front of the radiator that was leaking, so I bypassed it.

Yup gonna want to correct that.

After I bought my plow truck and right after ford replaced its trans it would tend to puke fluid if working in a lot for extended periods of time and or pushing wet heavy snow.

Arrive home after run down the road would fine it no longer leaking, put two and two together realized that it was a air flow/cooling problem, plenty of air running down the road but near zero while working in parking lots.

A new clutch on its cooling fan corrected the problem, that was several years ago now and it has never blown its cork again, the seal was not replaced. I Would have if it came to it but knock on wood it never came to that, naturally YRMV.

Shortly after that I added to its cooling capacity, adding a second and larger cooler to the one ford installed with the new trans replacing the original lines/cooler with it. It was larger than the original but still not very big and not a plate type cooler.

 

Well, my mechanic is telling me the same thing, only he's saying there's a lot of clutch material in the pan. Looks like a rebuilt trans time.

Thanks, all!

 

Is this a work truck that you depend on or an occasional use truck? If the former, yea time for a rebuild. If the latter, I'd chance it. You can change the fluid and filter 2-3 times in a row to flush all the crap out and you might get quite a few more miles out of it.

 

The problem with flushing it is the clutch material in the fluid might be the only thing keeping the trans shifting at all. Change it and there is a good chance it will do nothing but slip.

 

Yea, that is true. Maytag, did you see this for yourself? Might not be as bad as the mec says.

 

You also want the auxiliar cooler working, if the old one is leaking, get a new one. The old cooler inside the radiator might be plugged and that might be the cause the ATF overheated. If you want to rebuild the trans go for it, but for now I would replace the cooler and keep a close eye on the front seal, most of the fluid might have come from the transmission breather when it overheated.

 

I haven't seen the fluid, but the mechanic is a friend of mine, wouldn't steer me wrong. The truck is used about twice a month, but when I use it, it's loaded heavy! I might have 12 or more refrigerators, washers, etc on it. And it gets a 125 mile round trip or more on it when used.
I'm going with a rebuilt transmission, he says I can get a 3/36 warranty on it. Definitely going to get an auxiliary cooler put on it!

 

Sounds like you plan on keeping it for a while and want to fix it right. Your plans sound like the right thing to do. Good luck & take care!

 

If you're going that way, I advice you to replace the radiator as well, they start as low as $80, even less.

 

I stopped and talked to the mechanic today. I pulled the dipstick, the deep red fluid I put in 3 days ago, was an unappetizing brown color, with a definite burnt smell.