Manual C-4 Tranny leak

Red66GT

New Member
Jul 14, 2003
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Simi Valley, CA
My manual C-4 Tranny has a mild leak (nothing like my radiator if you read my previous post), it's nothing serious...yet.

Where do manual C-4's usually leak and are they hard to patch up? I need her to last until I finally get a T-5, but that'll be at least a year from now.
 
The V8 transmissions were:

3spd Ford Toploader (standard on V8's)
4spd Ford Toploader (optional on V8's)
4spd Borg-Warner T-10 (optional on V8's)
Ford C4 3spd automatic (optional on V8's).

If you ordered a 4spd on a V8 in 1966, you could get either the Toploader or the
T-10, depending on what Ford felt like giving you.

If you could find out where the leak is coming from and post that info here on SN, I'm sure someone could make an educated guess as to what seal is leaking. There are a few seals that should be fairly easy to do, but some require removal of the
transmission, the transmission valvebody and some of the valvebody's TINY parts.

To find the leak, you probably need to clean the underside of the car and pay close attention to where fluid is coming from. Cleaning the car is important because the fluid could get whipped around by moving parts and make the leak look like it was coming from somewhere else.
I hope this helps you.
--Kyle

Edit:
OOPS!! You said manual transmission! They dont have valvebodies, but the rest of it applies except my reference to valvebodies.
 
There are 3 main places to check and it is easiest to pull the tranny to do it, which may lead to a complete rebuild if it is a toploader.

1) The input shaft seal right behind the bearing retainer on the front of the tranny, which would leak from the inspection plate at the bottom of the bellhousing.

2) The tail shaft housing gasket, usually happens when the gasket dries up.

3) The output shaft seal, where the driveshaft slides into.

If it is 1 or 3, these could be caused by too much play in the bearings (meaning they're weak) leading to a rebuild. Good luck.

PS, only the output shaft seal is easily replaced without removing the tranny.
 
I'm gonna dry up the bottom of it and try to pinpoint the leak.

Hypothetically, could one of the seals or gasket just blow and cause all the gear oil to seep out, or is it more likely that it'll seep out little by little and I can just fill her up every once in a while If I had to?
 
Red66GT said:
I'm gonna dry up the bottom of it and try to pinpoint the leak.

Hypothetically, could one of the seals or gasket just blow and cause all the gear oil to seep out, or is it more likely that it'll seep out little by little and I can just fill her up every once in a while If I had to?

It will probably just continue to seep out, but as I mentioned above, it could be the symptom to a larger problem.