I am losing trans fluid from between the engine and trans. Been told it's a "pump seal". Anyone got an idea of how involved that is to change out?

 

there's a lot involved. if you never pulled a FWD trans, it'll be the biggest job you've ever tried.. and I guarantee you'll get plenty frustrated. you will need quality tools, jacks, jack stands, transmission jack, SHOP MANUAL... a hoist would save a lot of headache.

 

Hoist? I was thinking it dropped out the bottom? I have the tools. I just did a Ram 2WD trans. Bench rebuild, I took out and reinstalled myself. A friend mentioned lowering a "K" frame to get at it all??

 

get a factory service manual. hoist you bet, that's how I lift the van off the floor. you're probably thinking cherry picker like what you'd use to remove the engine. I have 3 hoist's at my house, so it's the only way I know how to do the job right. and I never touch the 'k' member.

 

You're right, cherry picker was what I thought you meant. This thing has 168000 mi on it and I'm trying to figure out if I should do this. Can you give me a rough rundown of the steps before I go buy that service manual? THANKS!

 

The way I did it the first time is:

step 1: got my hands on a shop manual fortunately I have friends at a dealer so they borrowed one for me)
step 2: I read the shop manual
step 3: put the van on the hoist
Step 4: removed front tires
step 5: had a beer
step 6: removed bolts that attach sway part to aframes
step 7: removed lower ball joint bolts
step 8: removed cv shaft nuts
.
.
.
.

basically, I followed everything the shop manual stated except the beer part... I figured, the people that built the thing wrote a way to fix it, they'd be the best choice to follow their directions.

 

Remember after you get transmission out and you are ready to replace the seals. Sit the transmission up on the transfer cover and then remove the pump.