Hey all

I took the truck on a errand run today, and just prior to heading out I spotted a fresh wet mark underneath. Not huge, but big enough I need to examine the situation. I had a quick look thinking it was the same slow leak from the bolted panel on one side. It wasn't - well it was slow, but from another spot.
I managed to catch the drip falling from the long horizontal belly vent on the bottom of the front of the transmission directly. 89 F350 460 ZF5 manual crew cab long bed.

I imagine the extreme cold we're getting in this part of Texas is to blame. The metal is contracting everywhere, making any gaps at seals a bit looser etc. It's been in the 40's recently, some 30's. We're getting an even colder front Monday.

Is this normal? What can I do short of cracking open the transmission to change the seals? I am sure the transmission needs maintenance, maybe a rebuild, but I have no ability or time to deal with it at the moment to that degree.

I've already got a quart of Lucas in there to help stop the leaks, along with new high mileage appropriate type transmission fluid and that certainly also quieted the transmission way down too. But we're much more used to 100 degrees for 100 days in a row, not 3 @ 35 overnight.

NOTE: one day prior, we got a nice Omaha Steak's package as a gift. It came with a fat block of dry ice that was still nearly fully intact. I took the suggestion from this board (which I will look up again tomorrow) to use dry ice to un-seize the thoroughly stripped transmission fluid fill plug. I thought why waste the ice, it's going to thoroughly melt in another day.

So I got my welding gloves (which I use for casting metal) and a couple towels and pressed the dry ice up against the fill plug for a good 5 minutes. Not the drain plug, but the fill plug on the driver's side. And then I gave the plug it a good few hits with a hammer to loosen up the iron grip it has had inside for what is likely 7+ years. I did NOT try to loosen the plug otherwise at that point. Like I said, it's badly stripped and is a herculean effort.

I'm hoping for a quick thaw after the cold front moves thru, with a big temperature difference within a short time. That's when I'll try again.

 

Well, the truck stopped leaking transmission fluid. Apparently the cold was the only culprit. As soon as we got back to 40's there was no sign of any drips.

Hopefully the dry ice did it's job too.


Dry Ice as a repair tool

 

Well I would have put the dry ice on and right after tried to loosen it as the ice causes it to contract and as it warms back up it will expand again. Hopefully it will come out for ya.

 

Unless I missed it above, did you see/mention where the leak was coming from?