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I’m at that point...

I was there years ago when doing body work. There was a time I got so disgusted with how the progress was going, I was ready to just go full ape sht, and blow the thing up.
But, somehow i managed to get past it and got the body work, and the hood good enough to attempt painting it. Which I did....And that resulted in failure.

It took having to bring Dave in to paint the damn thing.

Then head gasket failed numerous times on the original engine, it had to come back out because of poor machine work, it never stopped puking oil out of the breathers...it also tested me. And even though it ran great,..it was only a matter of time till it tested my resolve again when it broke.

Now i’m here...trying to figure out why in the fck this is happening..
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this is just with the engine bolted to the transmission. No converter bolts in yet. The converter moves so freely behind the flexplate it only takes the slightest finger pressure to get it to spin. I cannot believe that it is somehow causing the seal to leak because of some misalignment..especially considering that 1. this is a different front pump. The original pump didn’t leak.
And 2. The converter is supported by a bushing in the pump..that bushing would not let the converter somehow distort the seal to the point that it would leak. And 3. It’s not even bolted to the flexplate...the thing is just hanging there with one end in the tail of the crank, and the other end stuffed in the front pump. Id think if that converter isnt bolted to the flexplate, there isn’t some forced misalignment which might cause that leak. Especially when you consider that the last time i had the thing running it had no crank hub support, AND a bent flexplate...and while the oil pans leaked like hell,...that front pump didn’t.

Im back to full disgust mode. If I bail on this, and go 4l80e, I’m gonna have to reconfigure everything including the engine mounts, the hot and cold side piping, the water lines to the radiator, the tail shaft mount, and the drive shaft...it’ll be like starting over with the whole damn thing. And to add insult to injury, I have a torque converter that is just as worthless as the 4r70w is to anybody due to the modifications that have been made,..and now there’s a brand new deep pan that installed, and can’t be sent back.
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it takes about 10 minutes for the drip to form...No fluid is in this thing other than the partial qt that i poured into the converter, and a partial fill that i poured into that pan so that i wouldn’t have to add it all back through the dipstick tube. So the fluid that is draining out of the converter is causing this leak.

Ill pull it one more time. I’ll put the old front pump back in. And I’ll put this bitch back in one more time. You’d think if the goddammed thing is leaking when the converter is installed, it’d do that on the ground.
 
Found it.

It's not the converter seal at all, it's the pump gasket between the case, and the back of the pump....its letting fluid get past the bottom bolts' threads.

I removed all of them, tapped all of the holes clean, reinstalled the adapter, and “blue loctited“ every bolt tight.

I'll check it in a few days. By putting the converter back on, and letting it drain into the pump.
20200726_170046.jpg

A couple of bolts came out wet, so hopefully they're sealed now.
15958045718194746252766076623068.jpg
 
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Found it.

It's not the converter seal at all, it's the pump gasket between the case, and the back of the pump....its letting fluid get past the bottom bolts' threads.

I removed all of them, tapped all of the holes clean, reinstalled the adapter, and blue loctite every bolt tight.

I'll check it in a few days. By putting the converter back on, and letting it drain into the pump.
20200726_170046.jpg

A couple of bolts came out wet, so hopefully they're sealed now.
15958045718194746252766076623068.jpg
If, for some reason fluid is leaking past the bolts themselves, you can try coating the threads in either PTFE paste or transmission pan RTV.

Amazon product ASIN B000FW7VHIView: https://www.amazon.com/Permatex-56521-Performance-Thread-Sealant/dp/B000FW7VHI


Amazon product ASIN B0018PSATOView: https://www.amazon.com/Permatex-81180-Automatic-Transmission-Sealant/dp/B0018PSATO/ref=mp_s_a_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=transmission+rtv&qid=1595809735&sr=8-3
 
i almost dunked the bolt in blue loctite. Now it makes sense. I changed the front pump. the OG pump wasn’t leaking, but it was whining,...so New pump, different gaskets..sht changed because of it.
 
Additional conversation with my late night advisor, pointed to the fact that the two bolts that were wet were also an 1/8” longer than the rest. They were bottomed in their respective holes, and not clamping tightly against the bracket face.
Which would allow fluid past the treads.
And then drip on the floor.
And then piss me off.
 
Test mode.
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I now know that when the converter is fully on/in the front pump, the fluid that is inside would enter the front pump, and drain out through the channel that is cast into the front of the pump. The bolt that leaked is at the bottom of that channel, so all fluid has to do is gravity drain out of the converter to go past that bolt.
If there is still leakage, I have a seal issue at the pump gasket, and thatll mean I've gotta pull the front pump and replace the gasket.

I'll check on the thing later today.
 
I came back home at 1 to check on the thing,....no leaks. Because I was so close to getting this thing fixed, and because Monday’s are sometimes really slow at the dealership..i decided to just take the rest of the day off and put that thing back together so that Thursday would be left as a whole day to test it.

So that’s what I did..Got the whole freakin thing back in and running by 5..
And on Thursday I can spend the whole day taking it back out..Cause just as soon as it started,..it started to drip.

The little voice inside my head told me..” that pump gasket is bad,...these things don’t leak out of the bolt holes, you should pull the front pump and replace it.”
But I ignored that because I didn’t want to risk damaging that o ring when replacing the pump.

Now i get to do it anyway..Right after I take the thing back out again.
It’s getting to the point where I don’t even care. I can get the whole freakin thing out in 2, And it takes about twice that to put it back. The only thing I don’t like is how precarious it is balancing that 300 lb sonofabitch on a jack pad.
 
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I know you are about tired of spending money-
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But this jack makes all the difference in the world . And when you are done with it you can sell it :shrug:

I thought about that...for about a minute. The justification for getting it doesn’t outweigh the fact that after using it It’d be a wasted purchase till the next time I had to drop that trans, even though I‘ve had to take that thing out/in 3 times now. ( And believe me when I tell you, I’m not all about buying sht “just in case”) So with regard to justifying a trans jack instead of using a floor jack....The needs of the many “doesn’t“ outweigh the needs of the few,...or the one. :runaway:

I’ll go down there in a little bit and go about the task of getting it back out. I’ve rehearsed the procedure in my head for hours now. Adding to the fun factor is the engine has run,..the pump got turned,..the cooler lines are full of fluid again..and they just pour sht everywhere when they are dropped.
 
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Instead of a trans jack, I have a 1'x2' piece of 1/2" plywood I bolt to my floor jack (the lift pad comes off with just an hairpin on mine) using a 3/4" carriage bolt and some big washers. Voila, poor man's transmission jack. Hell of a lot easier than balancing the transmission on a lift pad.
 
Instead of a trans jack, I have a 1'x2' piece of 1/2" plywood I bolt to my floor jack (the lift pad comes off with just an hairpin on mine) using a 3/4" carriage bolt and some big washers. Voila, poor man's transmission jack. Hell of a lot easier than balancing the transmission on a lift pad.
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Spent the last two hours making an adapter to allow my floor jack to properly hold my transmission w/o letting it slide off. NOW TO COME UP WITH A SAFETY STRAP MOUNT.
 
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20200728_121333.jpg

Spent the last two hours making an adapter to allow my floor jack to properly hold my transmission w/o letting it slide off. NOW TO COME UP WITH A SAFETY STRAP MOUNT.
I used two eye bolts on my plywood when needed (transfer cases, transmissions without flat pans).

However, your adapter is freaking beautiful.
 
I thought about that...for about a minute. The justification for getting it doesn’t outweigh the fact that after using it It’d be a wasted purchase till the next time I had to drop that trans, even though I‘ve had to take that thing out/in 3 times now.

You'll wear that jack out before you're done with the transmission :D

Is your new trans-floorjack setup going to remain that way permanently, or will you cut it and reweld it when needed?
 
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