Buy a few cans of cheap tranny fluid and make the whole drive way the same color.

 

Any suggestions on what chemical to use for cleaning this? It's a combination of road grime, mud, tiny bit of transmission fluid (that turned everything into even more sludge), and lord knows what else is on there. I'm thinking mean green will clean it pretty well, since I can't even find the inspection plate with all this crud on here, let alone get it off of there if I did find it! =)

Once I get this cleaned, where will I be looking for the three bolts that release the inspection plate, and what will I be looking for once I get it off of there? I assume I am looking at the seal, TC, etc? Also, why would the starter need to come off? I looked through the service manual and I didn't see anything about an inspection plate, so now I am going blind, lol.

 

The plate is sandwiched between bell housing and starter. It needs to be removed to take the plate off. And you really won't see anything other than maybe verify that the fluid is coming from that area and not somewhere else.

 

What other lines may be on top of the transmission that could be leaking? I can't see anything that connects up there since it looks like the transmission cooler lines go into the side of the transmission. It's not leaking from the dip stick tube, at least I don't think it is, can't really verify with all this mess on the transmission. I'll be cleaning it really well tomorrow so I can possibly trace if it's dripping out of the bell housing or not.

 

Nothing on top to leak. Check the whole dip stick tube though, maybe it's rusted through.

 

It only takes like 5 minutes to take the inspection plate off. When its off you will see the flex plate on the transmission. What you are looking for tho is to see if the fluid is really coming from inside there. If its dry i doubt its coming from that specific spot.


Here is a picture i took of my 42re on my 4.0 Jeep a few months ago. That plate you see right there, thats the inspection plate. Its held on by like 2 or 3 bolts i forgot exactly, and its in a groove all you do is like pull it out. Then grab a flash light and crick your neck so you can try to get a look inside.

Click pic to make it bigger

 

On mine, the inspection plate is held on by two little bolts, the starter motor, and two engine to bellhousing braces.

Fun to get off......

 

Yea ok, lets compare a Jeep to a Ram, and a 42re and a 46re. LOL

 

Take the flexplate cover off (involves removing starter) and use the above picture to tell exactly where the leak is coming from.

The starter is easy to remove if you have two ten inch long half inch drive extensions. Without that getting to the top bolt can be a PITA.

 

Yep. Struggling trying to get the starter off while I am being covered in snow and continuously rolling backwards down this drive way isn't working for me. I'm going to take this up to my friend's shop over the weekend and see what's up.

If I decide to pull this transmission, how long would it take to pull it in a fully loaded shop versus pulling it in my garage with hand tools? Just trying to get an idea here of what I'm looking at if I have to pull the transmission.