vintage red matthew wrote:
Whenever I have a question about anything and I don't think Google will help me I come here. I consider myself pretty knowledgeable about car repair and mechanics in general but not so much about automatic transmissions. this one has me stumped.
I have a 1983 Chevy Elcamino with a 305 and automatic. Yesterday, while driving home the transmission started to slip and I had it towed home. It was out of trans fluid. I filled it and when I started it fluid poured out from between the torque converter and the engine. I estimate about a quart every 20 seconds. Everything looks good from what I can see. The converter seems solid and not wobbly. I have heard about a lot of problems with cars but this is a new one to me. Is there something on the front of the converter that can give out like that. Obviously the trans has to come out. Hopefully I'll be able to see what's going on then and all I'll need is a new converter. Any thoughts?
Matthew, I'm assuming you're running a Turbo 350 in the camino. With that much loss of fluid it's obvious something catastrophic happened. Usually if that particular converter overheats the seal will begin to leak. Something similar a like rear main, but tranny fluid. If the fluid is coming out of the the bottom bell housing inspection cover, the fluid could be coming the from the front tranny seal.
You're right, trans has to come out and an amputation of the converter can be done if that's the issue. Once you're in there that deep recommend a rebuild on all. When the converter is replaced with a large amount of new fluid it usually loosens things up in the hydraulics and you'll be yanking the trans out again.
On the bright side, now you can install that shift kit to give it that kick. These Turbos love it.
B