98 TJ Transmission Leak??

[rbo1577186]

98 TJ
4.0 Inline 6
5 speed

I noticed a few drops of gear oil in the garage (damn!). Upon further investigation it appears to be leaking where the Tranny meets the Transfer Case. There is a little bit of gear oil on the crossmember. I'm going to drop the crossmember to get a closer look this weekend. Anyone want to give me some possible things to look for?

 

[GMAC]

im pretty sure there is a seal between the 2 but am no 100% sure. pm getstucksome he just had his t-case out he could prob tell u if theres anything u could check for... good luck

 

[rbo1577186]

OK, Finally had time to drop the Crossmember. There is a black brace at the bottom of the Transmission/Transfer case. Above it there was a small puddle of gear oil which ran down the holes in the crossmember. I looked at my FSM and I'm guessing it may be the seal at the rear of the Tranny. There is also an adapter which has an RTV seal I'll have to replace and while I'm at it I might replace the seal at the front of the Transfer Case.

But...... I'm hoping it's just an old spill.
I've checked the gear oil twice in 2 weeks - both times it started pouring out as I pulled the fill plug (either it's not leaking or its really slow). I just changed the gear oil (Redline MT-90) this summer July-August?? I remember I was a little sloppy with this. So.....I cleaned all the gear oil up (on top of the black brace where the puddle was also) really good. I'm going to drive it and keep an eye on it. We'll see what happens.

 

[zubz]

Synthetics sometimes have problems with leaking through old seals. There is a seal in the back of the transmission. Not a big deal to change. Don't worry about the seal in the front of the tcase, very seldom do we see a problem with those.

The seal in the back of the tranny is often a problem when switched to synthetic fluid. Not a big deal, and may be a freak thing but we see that quite often when customers switch.

Andy

 

[rbo1577186]

zubs

Do you have to remove the adapter plate to get to the rear tranny seal?

 

[zubz]

Once you pull the transfer case off you can see the seal.......

 

[getstucksome]

like andy said once you pull the tcase you'll see the seal. check your shifter housing. mine was leaking from there earlier, running down my transmission and pooling in the skid. some silicone fixed that

 

[rbo1577186]

Thanks everyone.

It's leaking at the tranny seal.

However my Nissan used to leak from the shifter seal. Pulled the carpet up + removed the shifter linkage to get to it. I'll keep the Silly Cone in mind for next time.

 

[Tradarcher]

FYI, they are less then $10 with free shipping from 4wd hardware. Ask me how I know. If you ever pull the t-case for any reason it's not a bad idea to replace that seal. Seems like everytime I pull a t-case the seal starts leaking. Make sure you lube the seal. It's actually leaking out of the drain hole provided for that reason. Don't seal it up.

 

[rbo1577186]

Found the culprit....... Now I have to wait until Thursday for the seal. Not really too hard a job, just a bunch on damn shit to take off for a 7.49 seal......