I have a 93 f250 with a 351w 4x4 and I was in a mud hole rocking back and forth trying to get unburied when I dumped all my tranny fluid out. Motor was pulled and my pump seal was sitting in the bottom of my housing. Possible causes? Any and all help would be great!

 

It the trans temp got really hot , internal heat may have allowed the seal housing to expand enough and that with internal pressure could have allowed the seal to be pushed out.

 

Welcome to the site..

Pulled the motor to get to the pump seal?

If the seal was to come loose from the pump case, it should have been still been on the torque converter hub? How did it fall to the bottom of the bell housing?

E4's and 4R's are prone to puking fluid from the pump seal if overheated, more so with some age, and if in reverse and worked hard, or long grades loaded.

 

I was indeed in reverse when it happened. I pulled the motor after we towed it back home so I could do a motor build. I had been looking for an excuse to pull the motor and now seemed fitting. I should have described it better. When I pulled the motor the seal was pushed out. Where would I hook up say a tranny temp gauge? Also anything I could do to prevent it from happening again? She sees a lot of mud from Nov. To about may. But is also my daily driver. Thank you for the tips! Glad people really do respond to these.

 

When you reinstall your pump seal, add a little locktite around the edge of the seal before driving it in. That MAY be enough to keep it in.

There MAY be a retainer available to help keep the seal in place, though I don't know of any for Ford transmissions.

 

How many miles on the truck/trans? Serviced?

Could be a problem with the pump, bushings ect. if popping seals. Could upgrade the pump, or there's a few things you can do to improve flow if the pump was removed. If you plan on towing heavy an upgraded cooler may be in order as well.

 

truck has 216k but tranny was rebuilt 80k ago and was serviced 30k ago. its gonna get serviced again once i put the motor back in. i have already been looking into getting a better tranny cooler. is there anywhere on the tranny i can hook up a temp gauge?

 

this is also the first time this truck has popped this seal

 

Best place,,, that depends on who you ask

But the easiest place is to use the pressure tap (1/8 NPT) on the left side of the case. Electric gauge, mechanical may have problems with the probe size. That position, maybe not as accurate as if fitted into the cooler line, and the other option is,, a pan mount.. Argument there is, the fluid flow into the pan is being fed from cooled fluid from the trans cooler.

Could be that the seal was installed incorrectly, but not uncommon to eject a seal if the pump/bushing are the cause. Since you are doing your own work, I'd install a new seal and see what happens, more so if you install a larger cooler and gauge..