Pitchel

Great info in this thread - it helped solved the trans fluid leak in my new-to-me '96. My findings if it helps -

The 1st drive went well from 40, 50, and 60mph, but at 70-75 smoke started rolling into the cab. Like many of you I found fluid dripping off the front of the trans bell housing - amen to "black as coffee". Inspections after each drive showed it would start leaking >45mph.

Pulled out IR thermometer and found both trans cooler and lower coolant lines were 190-195 after driving 50-55mph. Decided to work 'over-filled' option and thankfully the trans pan had a drain plug. Drained (~4.5qt) & filled (~3.5qt) the trans fluid. Next drive - no smoke or drips at 65mph, and trans cooler line read 145-150 while lower coolant hose still read 190-195.

Jeep has continued to run strong, thanks for the ideas.

ZINGGG

Those are some nice temps. So your trans fluid was black as coffee? You may want to consider doing a few drains, refills, drives and repeats until your trans fluid is a nice red color

anarce

Lots of good info in this thread, so I thought I'd bump it and share what happened to me. On Monday I added a transmission cooler and flushed and filled the transmission fluid. I used the method where you disconnect the return line, route it to a bucket, and run the Jeep to use the transmission pump to empty all the fluid while adding more through the dipstick.

Well, I lost track of how much fluid I'd added and figured it was way off. After everything was reconnected, I took a short drive to the gas station to warm it up a little and check the fluid. When I stopped at the pump, ATF was pouring out on the ground and burning on the exhaust pipe - nasty. I figured I overfilled it, checked the level, but could not get a good reading on the dipstick. Took it home, drained some fluid, checked again. I tried over and over, draining, adding fluid, trying to get a reading, taking test drives with fluid puking all over... Couldn't figure out what the deal was and I was tired, so the next morning I said F it and took it to a shop.

Turns out, the vent tube was lying against the back of the engine and had melted shut. That was causing it to build up pressure, puke fluid, and shift funny. The shop put on a new vent tube and it runs great again. I'm so glad it was a simple fix after hearing horror stories about flushing the tranny fluid and then having to do a rebuild because all the magic particles in the old fluid were the only thing keeping it going.