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Goodmorning to all on this Memorial Day. I'm new here but have been reading treads for some time. I have a 2001 F250 SD 7.3 4x4 automatic trans. with 164,731 miles on it. My problem is that when I'm pulling my 22,000 lb horse trailer up a steep grade it starts leaking fluid in a steady stream out of the front. It only does it when it is under a lot of strain though. it doesn't do it when pulling on level ground. I've been told (by a deisel mechanic) that the front seal is weak and when there is high pressure it lets fluid past. I was also told that it is a easy fix that takes about 45 minutes to correct. I was told that i would have to pull the pan and the valve body to replace it. My question is if this is correct then what seal is it that I need to get and where would I get it from?
To replace the front seal you will have to remove the transmission from the truck, it sits between the pump and converter. To fix this the right way I would remove the pump from the trans to replace the bushing and pump oring. A worn bushing can cause the front seal to leak also.
In your case it is possible for that trans to vent fluid if its very hot. The vent is on top of the trans and sometimes has a rubber hose attached to it. If it is leaking from the vent make sure its not overfilled and maybe look into getting a external cooler. This trans will vent fluid if overfilled by just a little.
The fluid seemed to be coming out of the torque convertor bottom cover. If it was comming out of the overfill tube on top then where would it be flowing down to? I am planning on installing a larger cooler but haven't yet. As for pulling the trailer it does great. I have installed an ARE Airade stage 2 cold air intake and Silverline 4'' exhaust. I have also installed a Bullydog 6 position 4 bank chip that I turn down to 50 HP increase when pulling the trailer( as the instructions said to when hauling over 7500 lb's). I am planning on a transmission upgrade aswell but haven't decided on which one yet. I've narrowed it down to either the ATS with the torque lock convertor or the one from BTS. The BTS has a 2 year warrenty and the ATS has a 5 year 500,000 mile warrenty. Does anyone have a prefference.