Complete engine rebuild this spring. Changed fluid and filter in the trans... 1) The dipstick tube has popped out twice in the last month while driving. Makes quite a mess in the engine compartment when it happens (not to mention the mess on the trans and engine and ground) ... Can't guarantee I had the tube pushed all the way in before it popped out, so my question is... Could there be any other reason the tube is coming out other than not putting it in all the way ?? Could there be a pressure buildup in the trans for some reason ?? 2) Hard shifts from 2nd down to 1st when coming to a stop. Didn't do it before the work this spring. Could it be leaking with the new thin fluid instead of the 40+ year old stuff ?? Finally got the kinks out of the engine, now I have to deal with the part I didn't do anything to...
When that happened to me, hot fluid was blowing the stick out. Had a spring on it for a while to keep it in, till the trans was fixed. Bruce Roe
When min had done that a mud dobber(wasp) had filled the vent tube up with dirt. Once I cleaned that out all was well.
The trans dip stick tube has a strap and it bolts to one of the bell housing to block bolts. If you have that installed, the tube cannot back out. You may blow the stick out if the pressure is that high for some reason, but not the tube.
X2. I've seen a blocked vent tube do this, even seen trans fluid pushed all the way up and out of the dipstick tube. What made the tube easy to push out was that the bellhousing bracket was bent and already giving the tube an upward influence (force). Devon
Maybe I said it wrong... It wasn't the dipstick TUBE that came out it was the dipstick... I drove a few miles today, some on the highway and all was good... I think I may have not had the dipstick in all the way... Thanks for the comments !!
That was an old hydramatic 30 years ago. I don't know what they did to it. My final solution was to replace any other automatic with a switch pitch TH400; no more trans problems. Rebuild them myself. Bruce Roe
I had the same trouble, the fluid was coming up and pushing the dipstick out of the tube... See my thread here: http://www.v8buick.com/showthread.php?232926-Trans-Question I ended up hooking the transmission and the tranny cooler both in line and that helped... What really fixed my trouble was this: http://www.opgi.com/skylark/G240202/ Once I put the locking dipstick in I have had no problems since... . Plus I figured out that my "switch pitch Switch" was in the wrong spot for highway driving, the tranny temp stays way down with it in one position compared to the other side of the switch so that helps keep the tranny cooler ( I hooked up a tranny temperature gauge with my other gauges ) ...
There's a lot of talk about fluid coming out of the dipstick tube, but what about the vent tube? What if there is fluid coming out of there? Is this just the nature of the beast or is there a way to minimize it?
I've never had that problem. Either the transmission is being run with too much fluid, the vent is stopped up, or air is getting into the fluid somewhere. It isn't normal.
Ok, we will have to check that. If the vent was plugged up it would be coming out the dip stick tube though and I think that is not leaking. Too much fluid makes sense. Although air getting in sounds like a harder problem to chase down.
ok were do you get the o-ring. for the tube. also need one for the kick down cable, have a mystery leak on the passenger side and can't find were it is coming from
This one will work fine. It's a top hat type seal. http://www.ebay.com/itm/350-turbo-t...Parts_Accessories&hash=item3385063e76&vxp=mtr And here is the detent cable seal, http://www.ebay.com/itm/DETENT-BOOT...Parts_Accessories&hash=item4ac8bc200d&vxp=mtr
Glad I found this thread. We drove the cars over 1300 miles this past week from PA to North Carolina and back. On the way home Saturday morning we drove no more than 1/4 mile from the hotel to the nearest gas station and my wife noticed some smoke coming from her GS 455 (with TH400 tranny). I looked underneath and tranny fluid was leaking onto the headers and dripping onto the ground. I had tools and a hydraulic post jack with me, so I jacked up the car expecting to find a leaking tranny cooling line. However, the fluid was originating high up on the bell housing. When I looked under the hood, it appeared that the fluid had come out of the top of the filler tube. The dipstick was slightly ejected. It appeared to me that about 2 ounces had leaked out (based on the size of the puddle on the ground). The tranny was just rebuilt this past winter and is behaving fine. The fluid level is reading full. The car hadn't been run since the night before (except for the 1/4 mile to the gas station - so it was cool), but both of our cars had come close to overheating as we sat idling on route 77N in traffic due to a fiery truck crash in the tunnels north of Wytheville, VA. Also, on the drive down to NC, the GS lost an alternator/fan belt and overheated, boiling steam out of the overflow tank. Could overheating have caused the introduction of any air into the transmission system somehow - and then the tranny "burped" it out the following day? Question: Where is the vent on a TH400 so that I can check that it isn't clogged? Any other insight as to why I'd get fluid out of the top of the filler tube? We drove another 300 miles afterwards and my wife says the car was shifting fine. Thanks, Hutch
The vent is on the top right side of the trans where the bell housing meets the body of the trans. On my very first TH 400 install I mistakenly hooked up the vac line to the vent. Could not figure out why I had a pink could following me all the way into town where the car eventually stopped moving. Had owned manuals all my short life and didnt know any better.
