Leaking Tranny Pan

[DanielinTheLions]

My 97 Dakota has been sitting in front of the house for a couple weeks because of a problem with the steering knuckle. While it was sitting there it started bleeding transmission fluid all over the driveway. In less than a week it's leaked down to the point where the fluid doesn't even show on the dip stick. It's definitely coming from a hole in the pan. It looks like a previous owner tried to repair the pan with JB weld and the JB weld has failed. I guess it must have been a fairly successful repair though because I've owned the truck for seven years so it's been holding for at least that long. So with that in mind I'm trying to decide. Do I just try to patch it with JB weld again or go ahead and fix it right with a new pan. The pan seems to be a little hard to get. I managed to find a couple on ebay for about $80 and a Google search turned up a "universal fit" pan on JC-Whitney for $35. But I'm not to confident about a "universal fit" so I'm thinking that's probably not an option I should consider.

I'm leaning toward just doing it right and getting the OEM pan on ebay but a JB fix is pretty tempting on a sixteen year old truck. If it would hold for another seven years that would probably do the trick.

Thoughts?

 

[anonobomber]

Find a pan in a junkyard for $10. It will cost you the same as a package of JB weld but will last longer.

 

[901Memphis]

It depends on how easy the pan is to drop. If it's easy I would get the junkyard pan or look for one with a drain plug.

 

[BISCUT]

+1 to junkyard!

 

[DanielinTheLions]

Well junkyard was actually my first thought. I should have mentioned that in the original post. I've checked the national online search and only one junk yard came up and they wanted $75 for the pan. Unfortunately, our local junk yard is pretty pathetic. I might run over there Monday and see if they have anything but usually I find them to be pretty useless. I think they mostly focus on salvage cars that they can sell to re-builders.

 

[zzyzzx]

How big is the hole? Can it be welded?

 

[DanielinTheLions]

It's pretty small. If I wipe all the fluid away there's a moment before it starts oozzing out again. I guess it must be a pin hole. But the whole right front corner is cover in JB weld, almost from top to bottom so I don't know if there's more damage under that.

 

[babyivan]

Get another pan!
First of all, like you said, you have no idea if there's more damage underneath all the other JB.
Second of all, a re-application might last another 7 years or 7 days.... and possibly fail while driving causing you to lose enough fluid to burn out the clutches.

Why risk it? Spend a couple of bucks, the peace of mind is well worth it, IMO!

 

[DanielinTheLions]

Originally Posted By: babyivan
...you have no idea if there's more damage underneath all the other JB...re-application might last another 7 years or 7 days.... and possibly fail while driving...


Yep that's kinda why I've been leaning toward fix it right and put a new pan on it.

 

[Fleetmon]

I'm not sure about a '97, but on my '96 it was either drop the exhaust or the trans mount to get the pan out....I opted for dropping the trans mount and crossmember.

I couldn't locate a pan in my area (in a reasonable time period) and just brazed the hole closed.

 

[DanielinTheLions]

Well I ended up just picking up the pan on ebay and got it installed. It took almost 7 1/2 quarts to fill it up. The transmission must have drained almost dry while it was sitting there. I think I feel a lot better about it with doing it right and just replacing the damaged pan.