Trans leak??

I noticed some drops of what looked like tranny fluid under my jeep the other day. But today, I just had it running in my driveway without driving for 20 minutes or so and now have a little puddle on the ground about 6 inches across. The level on my t-fluid dipstick hasn't changed as far as I can tell, and the leak looks like it is coming from a metal connection on a rubber hose near the front of the jeep beneath the power steering near the radiator.
I thought for a minute it might be just oil-stained power steering fluid, but the level hasnt changed in that either.
Any ideas?

Remove your electric cooling fan and have a gander...............

Here's the leak. Trans cooler line?

yes that is a tranny cooling line i believe

Yep. There's your leak. Hydraulic lines tend to leak where the flexible rubber line meets the solid line. There you go.

If you're looking for an idea on cost for replacement....I had to have mine done because they starting leaking while on a trip and I couldn't fix them myself.....I paid $200 to have all the tranny cooler lines replaced on my 98XJ

98NWCherokee, that's a ripoff... at least if you have the skill to do it yourself. The parts cost $63 from RockAuto (for replacing ALL the lines at once):

1x Dorman 624-300
1x Dorman 624-301
1x Dorman 624-334
2x Dorman 700-814

Remove fan shroud and e-fan. Get your flare/line wrenches out, along with your 8 and 10mm nutdrivers, 3/8" quick disconnect / fuel line fitting tool, 14mm socket wrench, 7/8" flat open end wrench, 7/8" socket wrench, and 8+ inch lineman's pliers (you can get away with smaller ones if you are a gorilla, or foxwar71. Otherwise, get 8" ones.) Remove all the self tapping screws and clips holding the lines up, you may want to remove the mud/water blocking mat as well. Drain the transmission. Remove the upper transmission line fitting from the radiator (use your 7/8" wrench and make sure the outer nut on the radiator does NOT turn! or you may end up replacing the radiator too.) Use your lineman's pliers to cut both transmission lines flush with the fittings they go into on the side of the transmission. Use your 7/8" socket to remove the fittings from the transmission. (You could remove both lines from the fittings with the quick disconnect tool, but I prefer to replace the fittings as well, it's an extra 16 bucks and cheap insurance.) Put the new fittings in. Struggle with the quick disconnect on the lower fitting at the radiator end until you get frustrated and give up; use a pocket butane torch (keep a fire extinguisher on hand!) to heat the outer part of the quick disconnect till the plastic clip melts and yank it apart. Install all new lines, fill transmission with the same amount of oil that came out (use only DexIII/Mercon), shift through gears repeatedly to circulate new fluid through valve body and clutches and make sure all bubbles have come out, then check fluid level and add as required. It takes me about an hour and a half now if nothing goes wrong.

The first time I did this, the fittings were rusted into unrecognizable blobs on the transmission, so they took a while. The second time (on my MJ), United States Postal Smashers had helpfully run a forklift or something over my new transmission lines, so about 12" of the steel part of the longer one had been completely flattened. I discovered this months after having bought the lines and could not complain, and was in a friend's garage in New Jersey 250 miles from home with no way to get a new line in time to drive home, so I scavenged the same section off the old line (which luckily was entirely non-rusted ONLY where the new line had been destroyed), and patched the two together with a piece of 3/8" transmission cooler hose and some hose clamps. Still only took about two hours, even including the standing around holding the new crushed line and cursing and wondering what to do.

EDIT: oh yeah. Put the e-fan and fan shroud back on after doing that all :dunce:

Wow kastein, thanks for the great walkthrough. Guess I know what I'm doing this weekend!

Cut the fitting off, lengthwise, 3/8" rubber hose, hose clamps.

I replaced all my metal lines forward of the oil pan and all the crappy fittings 5 years ago, never looked back.

Cost: Almost free. Effectiveness: 99.9%

I was going to suggest the same thing. Be sure to use hose that can handle tranny fluid. I take it that's a temp sensor spliced tee'd into the line in the top picture?

lawsoncl said:

I was going to suggest the same thing. Be sure to use hose that can handle tranny fluid. I take it that's a temp sensor spliced tee'd into the line in the top picture?

Click to expand...

Yes, the pics are too damn small to be of any real use, tried to enlarge them but they came out too blurry. I just eliminted all the metal line forward of that point with 3/8" power steering/trans cooler line hose.

The gauge sender had to have metal line to ground it so that's where I cut and flared and put on flare fittings with hose barbs. Did the same to the radiator side. The cooler line is all return so no great pressure there.'

No leaks after several years.

cb3725 said:

Wow kastein, thanks for the great walkthrough. Guess I know what I'm doing this weekend!

Click to expand...

Been through it twice now, like I said, figure I should share the knowledge when I can. You can also replace as needed like others suggested, but I'm a fan of preventive maintenance rather than reactive repairs, and my lines were all pretty marginal, so I just went for the whole hog.

ParadiseXJ - does the sender ground properly on that? I figured the line would be a pretty sketchy intermittent ground since it's held with O-rings in the transmission fittings, and rubber coated wire clamps along the engine block.

kastein said:

...
ParadiseXJ - does the sender ground properly on that? I figured the line would be a pretty sketchy intermittent ground since it's held with O-rings in the transmission fittings, and rubber coated wire clamps along the engine block.

Click to expand...

I get a good solid reading off of it. I did not test it with a meter. I may try that to see. The line is also held together with a metal band and bolted to the block between that connection and the tranny.

I agree that I like to keep things stock-ish but those "quick" discos had vexed me for a long time. Even though I thought I had repaired the seal and clip I still had the disco blow off while I was on a trail, 20 miles from a paved road, let alone any town. I was frustrated, it worked out.

Yeah, I really dislike the quick disconnects. The one at the lower radiator fitting I cut off the new hose and used two hose clamps instead. Blasted things...