Just recently picked up a basket case 94 Bronco 4x4 w/a 4" lift kit. Just something to toy around with over the winter & who knows what else. The PO was an 18 y/o girl that had her rich daddy get it for her, dont ask. It's been sitting up for about 2 years. Was about 4qts low on motor oil & I think the power steering pump is show. Anyhow, it's pissing tranny fluid between the BH & motor faster than I've seen in my life. How fast is fast? Well I put in 5qts & was barely able to make it 5 blocks and back home before it all leaked back out. Talk about leaving a dirty trail!

I'm pretty darned good with a wrench. How much of a pain/time is it for 1 person to r&r these trannys (e40d)? I know the xfer case must be pulled also. Is it possible for a front seal to be that bad that fluid pours out that quick? I'm thinking of pulling it out & if it looks like just a seal, replacing it and calling a day (read taking a chance). Thoughts? Better yet how tuff would it be for me do a rebuild if I p/u a manual? TIA!

 

Hey, can't hurt to try the seal first! That's what it sounds like to me, short of a cracked case or Torque converter! Sitting around that long, the seals are probably dried out.Can't help you with the rebuild, I've seen it done, but I'm not even close to being ready to attempt that! Let me see if I can get one of our local techs to stop in here and chime in!

 

First of all go for the least intrusive. Make sure the dipstick is pushed in all the way or not cracked. A lot of those torque converters had a drain/plug in them, so pull off the cover and turn the engine w/ a breaker bar to see if it has a hole or plug in it (it might not have one) and if that's missing it would diffently explain the mess. Those seals can go out, but before yanking it go back and ask the girl/dad what work has been done, maybe the tranny or engine has been out and whoever worked on it forgot the lining pins in the block/bellhousing and it's not lined up correctly therefore casuing the seal to leak. If no tranny work has been done that you know of and there is nothing else jumping out at you and the case seems to be in good shape, you'll have to yank it out and check that seal out, they're not to hard to replace and that's about the only thing that could leak there other then the torque converter or else if the vent tube runs on top and for some reason the tranny thinks it should dump all it's fluid out due to internal issues. Fill it back up and take as good of a look as you can while it's running to get a good idea of the orgin of the leak. Make sure it's not on top the bellhousing.

Getting it out shouldn't be to bad, most of your battle will be fought with the exhaust manifold bolts, or maybe you can slip it outta there without any problems. Basically unplug all the wires, take off the driveshafts, take off the nuts on the mount, take all but the 2 easist bellhousing bolts out, take the starter off (unhook your batt.), take the torque converter nuts off, get a jack under the pan, perferably strap the tranny to the jack somehow and use a 2x6 in between the jack and pan (floorjack) or else have a helper, lift it up and get the cross member outta there, take out the 2 remaining bolts and pull back. I personally always leave the x-case on if possiable. I don't know if I'd try and rebuild one of these myself, it can be done, but sometimes you need a few special seal drivers, a press, there's lots of measurements to be made and you're gonna want to try and put it back together as quick at possiable so you don't forget how things go back together. Then if you accidently forget one checkball or get one pressure plate backwards (sometimes hard to tell) your gonna have a mess on ur hands. Plus if it's just leaking and in the 5 blocks you drove it seemed to function ok, I'd prolly leave it alone as long as the pump didn't get starved. Personally I'd just buy a junkyard tranny or reman, it's not worth the time to attempt it yourself for what you can pick up an AOD for.

 

Thanks much for the info guys! Will check all this out & report back. Probably a good idea to put in a new rear main seal also "while you're in there" for good measure?

 

Wouldn't hurt, 97 and up F-150's, 250's, Excursions, Explorers and Expeditions have a bad habit of leaking the tranny fluid into the transfercase, not a huge deal since they both use ATF but your tranny fluid gets low and you transfer case gets way overfull.

 

As luck may have it, the drain plug was not missing. Spent Saturday to r&r the tranny. I could tell it had been out before probably a used or reman one, my guess would be the former rather than the latter. Whoever had it out prior must've replaced the seal & didn't seat it in fully. It popped out with 1/2 twist of a screwdriver. Replaced the seals & did the rear main as well. After getting it back together I fired it up & idled for about 10 min & no leakage so far. Will see what happens when I give it a roadtest & if the tranny is any good.

 

Hopefully that did the trick.

 

Finally got a chance to get a decent lengths test drive in. This is after replacing 7 sparkplugs overgapped to .80 & one that was smashed to about .001. Truck runs smooth now but while driving I would venture to guess it's stuck in 'limp' mode. Starting from a stop it feels like it's in 3rd or 4th gear & when cruising if I hit the gas it doesn't downshift. But hey, at least the leak is fixed! Any suggestions for troubleshooting this? I'll also be hitting the archives pretty hard to see what I can find in there. Worst case I may be looking for someone local to do a rebuild or used unit. What should I expect to pay to have mine rebuilt?

 

Hmm, double check to make sure you've got everything plugged in on the engine and tranny, if you had a throttle position sensor disconnected it would **** everything off, give it a once over b4 considering a rebuild.

 

Will check all of this out tonight, I totally forgot about the tps.

 

I checked & all plugs were re-connected to the tranny on install as they should be, so I didn't miss anything there. I did notice that the speedo isn't working, so I went through all the fuses & they were good. Does the tranny ecu use the same reference signal that feeds the speedo? I'll check that the tps is working with a voltmeter later today as well.

 

does anyone know can you replace a E4OD with a C6 Cruiseomatic trans?

 

Update:

No luck, I'm pretty sure this thing is shot. Now when moving in reverse, it'll go a few feet & then kind of lock up as though it's in park.

Any suggestions for a rebuilder in or around Omaha? How much could I expect to reasonably pay for this? On the other hand if I luck out & am able to source the parts, it may be time for a 5-spd convert. Thanks again fellas!

 

Certified in Millard was willing to charge me $700 or so to rebuild my C6, dont have the money so im putting it off right now, not to bad yet

 

Was this price cash & carry if you brought the tranny in? That's what I'm hopping to do.