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Too Much Transmission Fluid?


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My thoughts are that it would take up space that should be filled by air and cause over-lubrication. You could experience slipping or poor performance. If you need to drain some, you can loosen the bottom line at your radiator and let some bleed off or you can run one of those $3 siphon pumps down the fill tube and pull some back out. Either way, you should get it right.

Just my $.02's --Mike

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I have a 76 Camper Special with a 400 trans. Would over filling by the former owner have caused seal leakage or other damage? The trans leaks badly.

The directed caution about not to overfill sounds so ominous that you would think it would be because there might be damage caused and not just some fluid blowby up the filler tube.

regards, John

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... Would over filling by the former owner have caused seal leakage or other damage? The trans leaks badly....

 

It may be part of the leak problem, but my guess would be that it needs a new front pump seal. Has the trans had any work done to it recently? The PO probably just over-filled it to compensate for the leak.

--Mike

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... Would over filling by the former owner have caused seal leakage or other damage? The trans leaks badly....

 

It may be part of the leak problem, but my guess would be that it needs a new front pump seal. Has the trans had any work done to it recently? The PO probably just over-filled it to compensate for the leak.

--Mike

 

Thanks Mike. I would doubt very seriously if there has ever been any transmission work done on it. I know that when the transmission cooler started leaking the PO removed it and did not replace it. That has me a little concerned too about the leak.

Anyway, when I get a chance to start working on it I'll be asking lots more questions.

kind regards, --John--

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Thanks for that good information. Because the truck has been around for 35 years I don't know how many times it might have been overfilled but I do know the PO did some strange things to it and am pretty certain he was not mechanically inclined which was verified by his son-in-law.

 

One thing he did was to take off the trans cooler because it leaked. I don't know much about a transmission cooler and it isn't covered especially well in Hayne's so I really need to know what parts and where I can get them in order to put one back on.

 

kind regards,

 

John

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Thanks for that good information. Because the truck has been around for 35 years I don't know how many times it might have been overfilled but I do know the PO did some strange things to it and am pretty certain he was not mechanically inclined which was verified by his son-in-law.

 

One thing he did was to take off the trans cooler because it leaked. I don't know much about a transmission cooler and it isn't covered especially well in Hayne's so I really need to know what parts and where I can get them in order to put one back on.

 

kind regards,

 

John

Are the trans cooler lines still hooked up to the radiator?

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The trans has a sump pan so minor over filling is not a problem. ATF expands as it gets hot and too much can force it out the fill tube, it can come in contact with hot engine parts and lead to a FIRE. Documented cases of that in the past and GM had to redesign the dipstick with a lock to prevent fluid from blowing out the dipstick. This is the main reason to not over fill, FIRE HAZARD.

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If it was me I would probably just drain the tranny fluid, do a flush and install a new filter and see how it does. Also you can probably find a tranny cooler fairly easily, which would be a good thing to hook back up. Best of luck with the truck! Keep it on the road friend! :cheers:

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The trans cooler was probably bypassed becasue the PO did not do any towing. There is still a cooler that is imbedded in the radiator. You will need to determine if the cooler up front is a GM unit or a aftermarket one. I think I have one or two of the GM units floating around in my garage. Everytime I hit the salvage yard I grab one off of a truck, since they are easy to access at that point. I retrofitted one to the wife's 02 Avy, they just bolt on in various spots. You will be able to tell a GM model if the lines in/out are hard lines and it is mounted with brackets to the front of the grill shell.

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Thanks for that good information. Because the truck has been around for 35 years I don't know how many times it might have been overfilled but I do know the PO did some strange things to it and am pretty certain he was not mechanically inclined which was verified by his son-in-law.

 

One thing he did was to take off the trans cooler because it leaked. I don't know much about a transmission cooler and it isn't covered especially well in Hayne's so I really need to know what parts and where I can get them in order to put one back on.

 

kind regards,

 

John

Are the trans cooler lines still hooked up to the radiator?

 

 

Yes, they are. Two steel lines going forward and hooked into the radiator on the right side. Does that mean that there is something internal to the radiator?

regards, -- John --

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  • 2 months later...

Are the trans cooler lines still hooked up to the radiator?

 

Yes, they are. Two steel lines going forward and hooked into the radiator on the right side. Does that mean that there is something internal to the radiator?

regards, -- John --

 

 

John, DO NOT take both fittings out of the radiator because there is a cooler that will fall inside the radiator and lose their o-rings like I did when I changed out my tranny cooling lines on my 2500HD. I am still in the process because the radiator is $500+-!!!! Learn from my mistakes! LOL

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