Took the 70 vert into a mechanic to have a tune up & a general check up before I went to Eureaka Springs weekend. Before I took the car to the shop it sounded fine with no whining. Now when I start the car it whines till the trans gets good and warmed up.
The question is, What could this mechanic have done to the car to cause this whining and a FYI I had changed the transmission fluid and filter and installed a new pickup tube o-ring before it went to the shop and drove it around for a few days before sending the car to the shop.
Now the mechanic said the problem is the trans pump seal and I'll have to pull the transmission to fix the problem.
Does this sound correct?
Also keep in mind that the trans seem to hit hard going from first to second but seems ok from second to third.
So I asked the mechanic to see what he thought and that this trans might have a shift kit in it as well.
Question, Does this sound like I need to have this trans checked immediately, or is this something that will not hurt the trans and can be run for a while, say for a short 50 to 70 mile cruises from time to time.
I'm getting ready to call an outfit tomorrow to have them check the trans but wanted to ask the question here first to see what some of you thought about the problem.
I want the car to run right and not have to worry about the tranny but then also was wanting not to have to dump a load of cash into the trans right now.
Thanks for any info.

Did you switch to synthetic fluid when you did the change?

Pete should chime in soon and give some advice on this.

matthew

Quote:

Matatk, no I'm still using the dextron fluid.
Thanks.

One ore bit of information about the transmission.
The way the mechanic explaned is that the front pump seal has one bad. So the whining is being caused by the fluid draining by the pump seal into the pan. Now when the car is cold and started up the pump is starving for fluid and theres air in the pump which is causing the whine noise. Once the pump has primed back up it stops whining.
I take it real easy while the car is still cold. Infact I let the car warm up real good before putting it in gear. Even when the car is good and hot the transmission does not slip or falter in anyway that I can tell.
So why has the pump seal all of a sudden gone bad. Is this common in the 400 trans?
Again can I drive the car like this or not.
Thanks again fof any advice.

I would not drive it if I suspected the pump seal was bad. Changing a seal is not near as bad as changing the pump...which might be the next step if it's run too often without any fluid in it.

Hey thanks DB.
Pretty much what I was doing (not driving it)so I'm going to se the tranny man.

Cut O-ring on the pickup tube. Lets the pump drain back and it whines until it picks up fluid again. Common THM 400 thing.

Hi TimAT,
I thought about that as well. I'm going to go by the shop this morning and talk to the mechanic that worked on the car last month and have him give me a step by step procedure on what he did to the transmission. I thought about pulling the pan to check the o-ring myself. Problem is that I just managed to stop the pan from driping fluid and didnt want to touch it again.
On the other hand I might as well have the transmission gone thru so that way I'll feel better when I try to make a visit up to KC or Columbia.
This next outfit that I take the car to has a hell of a reputation, plus he'll have a warranty on the tranny as well.
GG.

did you find the problem? Just Curious