Torque converter or seal?

[maria24017]

This is about my 1990 Legacy.

Just about 3 weeks ago my fathers truck started leaking transmission fluid pretty bad. It was a fast drip, and sometimes a stream. He thought it was a gasket or hose, tried tightening the hoses and then pulled the transmission and tried the gaskets. After pulling and reinstalling it 3 times he checked the converter and found a crack in it.. He was able to buy a reconditioned one and fix the problem.

Since I found an outback for my mother she finally stopped driving my legacy.. My father used it on Friday since his truck needed the brakes replaced. When he got home for lunch the car was smoking horribly from under the hood and a 6" wide trail of transmission fluid following him up the hill. The car previously never had a leak. Upon inspection the fluid looks like it is coming from the bell housing area. When the car runs (which we only tried 2 or 3 times for a split second) the fluid sprays out extremely heavily. I am nearly positive it is coming from around the torque converter, but as heavy as the leak is could how likely is it to be a seal rather than the actual converter?

The transmission fluid is nice and clean. And the car was only leaking for 1/2 mile so the transmission is fine.

[mike-tracy]

Most likely the seal. They do go bad. I pulled my motor without unbolting the torque converter from the flex plate one time, and had the same result. Drove it that way for a week till I had a chance to pull the motor again to replace the $12 seal. ARGG!!!

[maria24017]

Was it leaking as badly though? The way it is leaking it would probably last for 5 or 10 minutes tops before running out all the transmission fluid.

Also, since you mentioned fixing the problem by pulling the motor. Do you think that would be easier than dropping the transmission? The biggest issue we have right now is finding a place near by for my father to work on it. But if the seal/and/or converter could be fixed by pulling the motor my brother and I could just do that in our drive way.

[mike-tracy]

No, yours sounds way worse. I went through "only" 10qts of ATF that week, but I was never worried about running out.

Since you don't see any obvious cracks on the tranny case, and it's not leaking out the back, it's hard to say what it is with both the engine/tranny in place. I have an engine hoist available to use so I always pull the motor. Takes under an hour solo, took about 2.5 my first time.