May 10th, Happy Birthday

[Swank]

Happy birthday to my old ride.  May 10th, 1957.
Hopefully we'll be rolling soon.

Wasnt leaking, but spent a little time tidy'ing up the fordo in celebration.

Any tips or pitfalls to changing the front seal without pulling the pump?

[gasman826]

If fluid is leaking out the bell housing...change the torque converter o-ring, pump seal, and pump o-ring.  Anyone of them could be leaking.  Why replace one and find it was the wrong one.   If the pump o-ring is hard, rebuild the whole transmission.

[Swank]

I had it running and moving before i took it apart, nothing was leaking at all. (might have sludge sealed itself though, everything was pretty thick)
so, regardless, you think it'd be better to pull the pump off anyways and change those seals?
Im running a little blind here seeing how my book only has manual transmissions in it. 
I have the seal that goes around the shaft to the converter.
I need to at least get an o-ring thats near as big round as the teeth on the converter, and one that goes between the pump and the case, if i'm understanding.   That sound about right?

[gasman826]

FATSCO -- fatsco.net   or Northwestern Transmission Parts --nwtparts.com for vintage transmission parts.  I've used FATSCO several  times.  Tech support was super.  Order an assembly manual from them for clear step by step tear-down and assembly instructions.

There are several schools of thought here.  1) if it ain't broke...don't fix it  2) over think everything and yield to caution and rebuild it.  Lucky people get away with #1 all the time.  I'm not lucky so if I don't follow #2, I'm the one stuck along the road and doing re-work that I should have done right the first time.

[Swank]

Thanks, i'll check them out.
Dont know that i fall in that lucky category myself, probably break down and go in as far as the dollars say i can go, then leave the rest to luck.

[Hoosier Hurricane]

The pump to case seal and the converter O ring are not actually O rings.  They have a square cross section and are specific to transmission in question.   John