New transmission? Or just a seal?

Since I got the jeep a few months back it has been leaking a little bit of tranny fluid. This morning I came out and it was everywhere. Got underneath and this is what I found.



I'm not sure exactly how this happened or what happened but I don't want to drive it anymore. Is this part of the whole transmission or is it just a seal? I have another trans with 60,000 miles less on it that I could use. I've never pulled a tranny before. Is there alot involved? Or should I possibly just take it to a shop. :/ let me know.

89 XJ, Auto, NP242, 220,000 miles

Thanks.

Anybody??

My dad took a look at it and seems to think its the inspection plate. Should fluid be coming out of there?

Yes, that would be the inspection plate.

Up in there are a couple of seals that could be leaking--your rear main seal of the engine or the front pump seal of the AW4 transmission.

A**uming you are sure of the type of fluid that has leaked out, then the transmission seal is the likely culprit.

I'm not 100% sure but it's deffinitely not engine oil. Should I be worried about the inspection plate? Is it something I could do myself or just take it to a shop? I should probably replace those seals while I'm at it?

Search "rear main seal", there are NUMEROUS write ups, some with photos, it is not a big deal but some issue can arise, ALL of the info has been posted before.

Don't worry about the inspection plate, you should straighten things up and mount it but it isn't sealed, it just keeps the big stuff from getting in there and messing things up.

You will have to pull the transmission to replace the front pump seal.

Ok yeah I've seen those write-ups before. Mainly I was just concerned about the inspection plate, what it was and if it was a big deal or not. Thanks.

If the trans seal is leaking too much to leave it (more than a couple drops over night), I'd say pull the transmission and change it-- it'll only get worse with time. If it's not too bad, pull the inspection plate, hammer it flat, and bolt it back up.

It normally leaks like 4 or 5 drops then stops. This morning I came out and it was substantially more so I'm not sure what happened. Lately I've been hearing gear noises as I slow down to, so I changed both my diff fluids and my t case and it's still there but only sometimes. How hard is it to swap out the trans?