So I bought this '97 Dakota 4x4 200k miles strong a#$ motor, no rust, but had a slight leak around daggone tranny pan. So, from $2,500.00 down to $1,200.00 I am out the door looked like the truck had not been cranked in months but when I got in it, she cranked right up. Original window sticker in dash, come to find out, third owner of the truck. The guy who originally bought the truck, went all out, heavy duty rear end, suspension, and all and no rust at all, underneath, NONE. Anyway. Haul her back to the house, drop the pan, new gasket new filter, let her drip like honey for half a day put her pan and gasket back on filled her up took for for a drive and brought her home and she was seeping out the fluid. Like a stuck juggler. Never seen it before in my life. Of course I have never been much of a mechanic but I am not an idiot either. Mad as hell, I drop the pan, call Advance order another gasket and in the morning, try it all again. No leaks. Runs good, shifts good! I take her on a good 120 mile run, half of it uphill since I live in the mountains. Get home, park her, crawl up under her, no leaks! I am blown away. OK!! Get up in the morning and there is tranny fluid pretty much a good steady flow had dripped overnight. I look underneath and I am looking for the leak and I am level ground and it seems to be coming from the dam pan, between the gasket and pan itself, just in a certain spot mainly. Mad as hell, I know I got to drop her again, all this money on fluid, but this time no gasket, RTF this time. That is what I use. Nice and neat to make sure that when I reinstall it, it does not squeeze and drip into the pan itself and in turn get into the transmission. I give that stuff a good day and a half and fill her up and take her down the road, check her........no leaks! A week or two go by and I pull out of the drive and I happen to look from where I pull, and there I see that danged devilish color. WTH??? I get up under there and all around the pan, you could push the RTF and tranny fluid would just drip. Drop it again and I tell myself, someone has had to literally drop this pan for sure. So I set it on the garage floor and I second guess my self I run it to some mechanic friends of mine who they say it is bent a little, so I order me a brand new pan! New gasket, new pan, surely no leak! BS!! Still leaked!!

So yesterday I found out that the "Neutral Safety Switch" whatever the heck that is, was soaked and seemed to have a lot of fluid coming from it so I had it replaced, after attempting to replace it myself. I got home topped off the fluid and then took the truck for a run but it seems to now shift harder which I do not know if that has a pile of ashes in anyone's cream puffs or not but it does and that is just here like very recent. But, I didn't park in front of the garage because I wanted to see how or if unlevel ground would generate a leak somewhere as it had reared its ugly head before, and yes it did once again. Good Lord another leak. So this brings me to my question actually.. I get my big Irish head up under there and right above the Neutral Safety Switch, there of course is the linkage for the gearshift on the column, I suppose because we had to put the gear in low to remove and replace the dang safety switch. But anyway, there is a rod, that sticks out of the top of the assembly unit where the transmission pan is and it is connected to the linkage and I see transmission fluid coming out from the bottom of it. The linkage swivels, per se on this rod so I am assuming that it must be or may be down inside the good stuff that no one wants to get into on the underside of the pan!!! Can anyone please tell me what that piece is and no, I do not have a picture!! LOL

 

Moved to the correct forum.