Blowing tranny fluid

Hey there. I was tooling up interstate 17 with the family heading into the mountains for the weekend and while climbing a hill I began to see smoke trailing behind me. I slowed down and by the time I gor to a safe place to pull over the smoke was gone and other than the fluid that had already come out there was no visible leak. The smoke was coming from the fluid on the catalytic converter. With more mountain to climb I decided to add a quart and limp back home. I kept my speed low(55-60) which kept my RPM around 2k and I didn't see another puff of smoke the whole 100 miles home, nor has there been any more leaking.

Any ideas? I hadn't put fluid in it for several weeks and had it up in the mountains about 6 weeks earlier.

How old are the cooler lines?

I had trouble with mine recently on the way home from Moab - they were old and rusty, and two climbs over the Rockies with Wheeling in between was too much for them.

Since replacing them, I think the cooling system has worked better too (better temperature regulation, perhaps, since there's no ATF leaks? don't know).

Trans was either overfilled or you were overheating it.

I know it wasn't over filled, that was one of the first things I thought of but I had checked it a couple weeks earlier(yes, idling warm in park after running it through all the gears). The engine temp was fine. Maybe I have a blockage in the cooler line that would keep it from passing through the radiator properly. Now may be a good time to add an after market cooler.

Overfilled and/or overheating will do that. With those 31s you've got, I bet yo'ure still running stock gears? I'm going to bet the tranny drops out of Overdrive at the drop of a hat, especially when you've got a loaded Jeep "with the family heading into the mountains for the weekend"

Since it's unable to lock up or stay locked up, the torque converter is slipping more frequently and building up heat in the fluid. Make sure you drain as much of that old stuff out as possible, check the status of the aux cooler (you DO have one, right?) and consider regearing. Junkyard 4.10s would be a good match, 4.56 might be overkill on 31s but would match 32s and 33s very well.

Jim www.yuccaman.com

Yucca-Man said:

Overfilled and/or overheating will do that. With those 31s you've got, I bet yo'ure still running stock gears? I'm going to bet the tranny drops out of Overdrive at the drop of a hat, especially when you've got a loaded Jeep "with the family heading into the mountains for the weekend"

Since it's unable to lock up or stay locked up, the torque converter is slipping more frequently and building up heat in the fluid. Make sure you drain as much of that old stuff out as possible, check the status of the aux cooler (you DO have one, right?) and consider regearing. Junkyard 4.10s would be a good match, 4.56 might be overkill on 31s but would match 32s and 33s very well.

Jim www.yuccaman.com

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X2 on that. Ive been there also. 31 inch BFG ATs, four adults in the rig, coolers and camping gear on the roof rack, oh yeah stock gears...
Same thing, it overheated. I pulled over asap, let it cool for about 30 mins,
then went home a little less quickly. Did a drain, filter and fluid change, never had any issues afterwards, but i did learn what my limits were. Its a tough transmission, it should be okay. Just change the fluid.

Wallymander said:

X2 on that. Ive been there also. 31 inch BFG ATs, four adults in the rig, coolers and camping gear on the roof rack, oh yeah stock gears...

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Laughing... You must have seen us pulled over! I'll do a drain and start looking for gears and a cooler.

Thanks everyone for your advice!

I had the same thing on my old xj. Turned out to be a kink in one of the transmission lines. Sprayed out all over the hot exhaust when it decided to misbehave and overheat. You might wanna check that your lines have no kinks also.

If you overheat the fluid can boil out of the dipstick tube--puts on quite a show when it hits the exhaust, eh? I no longer try to pull my popup any faster than 55, and only in 3rd gear and it's fine.

Bought this today on eBay for $30 delivered:

stacked plate cooler
Aux fan and shroud
temp control switch
about 25 feet of hose
misc. fittings

Not going to over heat again!

Good west side radiator shop to get it flushed?