my 1996 Bronco with 5.8 is leakin fluid from the front of the trans front seal? went and did some offroading saturday afternoon. didnt really do enough to overheat the trans, or so i think. drove the truck home saturday and parked it and let it sit till sunday afternoon. drove it probably 4-6 miles then parked it for about 20 minutes, then went to the local carwash and got there superduty undercarriage carwash and then i noticed come steaming. looked at my temp guage and was runnin about the "a" on normal and this truck never hits the "o" on normal, freaked me out especially when the amp gauge was way low too. figured i popped a radiator hose. well looked under the hood and it was just the reservoir lid, ok no big deal it popped off. clipped it on took the truck down the road and fixed the runnin a little hot issue. then i went to autozone and noticed fluid pouring out of the front seal region. what yall think is goin on??

 

could have a couple things going on. is the tranny low on fluid? i would also be conserned about how hot it got while at the car wash. makes me think perhaps you have a blown headgasket maybe. check your radiator fluid level also.

has it gotten warm again?

 

My 93 Big Bronco had problems with trans overheating even when doing slow and easy plowing. Mine has E4OD automatic which has a convienent hole near shifter in side of trans to put a temp gauge pick up. If you can you should put a gauge on it so you can monitor. The trans gets hot during times you would not think it should. With gauge and secondary external cooler it is much better but still hates the plow on front. I also went to direct fan - no clutch - which is noisy and sounds like Hoover built engine instead of Ford but does give plenty of air at lower speeds - like off road hill climb and the dreaded plowing. Also, Lot of work but the newer Viton seal in trans takes the heat much better than older seals. Used to burp big globs of fluid when it was real hot.

You mention yours is 97 and mine is 93 so I am not sure if your tank is a regular overflow tank like mine or an expansion tank like newer trucks. Lid blowing on older overflow means when shut off you may have had a real hot "blow off" of steam and possible head gasket or you are low on anti freeze so it blew. Expansion tank lid blowing off means too much pressure in system for sure. You also mention the amps going low. My 93 has had the serpentine belt tensioner rust "stuck" twice in three years and had to take apart and clean and lube. If the tensioner is not pulling hard enough you will loose alternator power output, fan speed, and water pump speed, which will give you all the issues you described. See if your tensioner moves easily, but also has a spring that is very firm.