front seal has failed, dumped the fluid all over the street. Now i have 2 questions, if i only moved about 2 tenths of a mile before i shut it down would i need a rebuild? can i just get away with a new seal?

question 2 is i can get a master rebuild kit from work and am not afraid to do this, but have not been able to find a decent step by step. Any help in where i should go would be appreciated

 

For information on rebuilding the transmission, I would grab the applicable ATSG manual. It will go through everything necessary to get you through it. There are also videos available to walk through the rebuild. I have the one for the 700R4 which is what would be in an 86 truck, but I do not have the ATSG manuals yet (will be getting them soon as I just picked up a 90 Suburban to steal parts off of for my 74 K5 and my 70 Chevelle).

As far as needing a rebuild or not, that is hard to say. There likely was a cause for the front seal blowing out. Just installing a new front seal could work and work for a long time. Or, you could go through all of the work installing a rather inexpensive seal only to have it blow out again. This problem may be centered around the pump only with no real damage to anything else in the transmission making for a cheaper rebuild only touching the pump itself, but you will not know until you get in there. If there is a lot of clutch material in the bottom of the pan and in the filter, you may want to rebuild it while you have it out.

 

Thanks for the info. where can i aquire one of these manuals you are speaking of ??

my plan either tomorrow or friday is to drop the pan and inspect for shavings.

ive figured that if i pull the trans once ill do it again.its not much of a loss to me since i take public trans. to work anyway.

if anyone is intereted i will post pics of the major removal and installation for those who are not afraid to get dirty[sm=badbadbad.gif]

 

Run a google search for 700R4 ATSG manual. There will likely be two manuals, the rebuild manual and the updates manual.