Leak at shift rod on auto

[xTHANATOPSISx]

Came in to find my car surrounded by an ocean of tranny fluid. Got it up on the lift and have found that the leak came from the shift rod, where it come out on the driver's side and enters that shift selector/sensor piece. Looks like the fluid leaked into the electronic piece and came out the electrical plug on the front of the unit. That appears to be the issue anyway.

My first thought is to pull that unit off, clean it out with contact cleaner, clean the shaft and replace whatever o-ring or seal is there and reassemble it and top up the fluid.

I don't know for sure, but I'm suspicious that, because the car set while I was doing some other work on it, when it fired back up after sitting, the o-ring, if that's how its sealed there, probably stuck to the shaft and tore with I started driving the car again.

If someone knows better than I do, and can save me some time by correcting me, I'll be happy to know. I'll rip into it in a few days time, but I figured I'd collect some ideas before I get started.

 

[joegr]

This may help. It shows an O-ring seal.

http://deneau.info/ls/s6x~us~en~file=s6x71023.htm~gen~ref.htm

 

[oddball]

Usually, that's not very easy to service on-car.
I haven't dug into one of these, but shift rods are usually held onto a valve in the throttle body via a nut or pin. So you'd have to drop the pad and see if the rod can be unhooked and have enough room to slide out.
And find a replacement seal.
A local tranny shop may be able to help you source one by itself. Look for the large independent ones that supply parts to other shops.

 

[xTHANATOPSISx]

Thanks for the diagram and info. I'll probably see if I can get the electronic piece off and take a look at the seal/o-ring. I suppose I MIGHT be able to replace the seal from the outside if I'm really lucky. Otherwise, I get the feeling the trans is coming out and going to a shop for the work since it will probably take me too long to "acquire the necessary skills" to do it.

 

[xTHANATOPSISx]

Did a rebuild on a 4R70W for a friends mustang and while looking at some diagrams, noticed that the seal on the 4R70 is the same setup as the 5R55 (pretty sure that's our trans) and its not too big a deal, if the manual lever isn't a pain to R/R. Looks like just dropping the pan, removing a nut, and sliding manual lever out of internal linkage at worst. May be able to pull the seal and install without removing the lever, just don't recall right now if there is a flange on the manual lever that's larger than the shaft where is passes through the seal.

Just though others might like to know what I've found out so far. http://www.transtar1.com/catView.asp?ID=627 That's the link from which I downloaded the PDF catalog with diagrams.