was driving and ended up in stop and go traffic, then exited the freeway and pulled into a filling station to get gas and was losing trans fluid out of the bellhousing. it was a steady drip. I topped it off and drove the last 6 miles to the house. there were no drips the next day, drove and filled up the trailer i was pulling. then drove back to the house, no leak.. heading south (120+ mile trip) got 30 miles down the freeway and into stop and go traffic and trans dumped at least 4 qts of fluid. i limped it off freeway to auto part store and topped off trans fluid and went back to the house. pulled the transmission and replaced the front seal, was visibly badly worn and came out very easily. with new seal in, and reassembled, hooked up trailer and pulled it around the cul de sac and it started leaking again. I've found some posts that not only are the grey seals prone to wear and leakage, they also do not seat tightly in the aluminum pump face and can leak between the metal of the seal and the pump face.

is it possible this is what I've got going on now? I also noticed that the TC neck is discolored (rainbow colors on neck) and the body of the tc paint is discolored some, possibly from heat. when it has enough fluid it shifts fine, is just losing fluid

 

When you had the seal out what did the bushing behind the seal look like? I'll bet it was very worn. And the converter sounds like it should be replaced, too.

There is a better seal available from the aftermarket. It's made from Viton.

 

Converter should be replaced if you see rainbow colors (overheating)

 

the bushing looked ok, but can it be replaced with pump still in or does pump have to come out for it to get replaced?