Hot Rods Any recomendations on rebuilding a cast iron power glide in L.A.

Thanks in advance

 

recommendations

 

You can put in a 350 turbo for half of what you will spend on that old cast iron Glide and you will have much better all around performance!

 

find the shop manual, buy an overhaul kit, have at it. I did my first when I was 16 yrs old.

They are heavy, so be careful.

 

I'm fighting the temptation of a 350 but I am so sick of this stupid trans pissing oil every time I start it.

It's a bone stock truck and I like that quality about it, so if I install a 350, obviously I will be cutting and welding crossmembers.

 

It seems like the shaft has a worn spot near the seal, probably since it hasn't been built in 58 years. I don't know if I can even find a replacement shaft.

 

What shaft are you talking about?

 

where the front transmission seal is. When i rebuilt the engine last year, I somewhat remember being able to move the shaft side to side with my hand.

 

The input shaft? or the torque converter hub?

 

The input shaft will have side to side movement but center's and stay's steady when in converter once converter is centered to crankshaft.

 

input shaft

 

Makes no sense to me but it leaks like crazy and I have replaced the seal twice just to be sure.

Every morning when I start it up it just starts pissing a puddle and then when I drive out of my driveway a wonderful stripe follows me out.

I guess after it warms up it stops, I think.

 

Point out where there is an input shaft seal.

 

The input shaft is the smaller shaft, that fits inside the stator support shaft. The seal you pictured is for the torque converter hub.

You might want to do some troubleshooting, to see if you can find where it's leaking. There are a bunch of other seals and gaskets in the transmission, and it could be leaking from any of them. Or even from the vent.

 

Yep, you are right. Even if the inner seals are leaking, would it drip out of the torque convertor hub seal?

 

If internal seals are leaking, it probably would not be shifting properly.

Tell us about how you check the fluid level.

Is the oil coming out the hole in the bottom of the bellhousing?

 

If internal seals are leaking, it probably would not be shifting properly. Shifts great

Tell us about how you check the fluid level. I check when car is running in neutral

Is the oil coming out the hole in the bottom of the bellhousing? yes

 

Tranny John..... best in LA area imho...was in Rialto, moved out to Desert somewhere.
Owns this Stude Pickup..pm if need phone#

 

Have you checked to see if the converter is leaking? (I'm assuming it has the bolt together torque converter). There is a large O ring between the halves, that can get brittle and leak.

Also did you replace the bushing in the front pump, when you replaced the seal? And how did the hub look, on the torque converter?

There is also an O ring around the outside of the pump. And a gasket between the bellhousing and the main case.

 

There is a large O ring between the halves, that can get brittle and leak. no leak there

Also did you replace the bushing in the front pump, when you replaced the seal? And how did the hub look, on the torque converter? I think the hub looked fine but I did not replace the bushing since I don't know squat about power glides.

When I took the engine out to inspect the leak, it had a wet trail on the very bottom of the torque converter hub seal. The leak is WAY worse than that now so I am assuming that it is in the same place.

I guess I need to pull the trans for a deeper inspection of seals and gaskets.

 

Call Art Carr at California Performance Transmission in Huntington Beach. Old or new he's got the guys in his shop that can fix anything....

 

With general wear and tear, the old, cast iron Powerglides are known for "burping", and that sounds like what may be happening with yours, although they usually have to sit for some time before that happens. Basically, the torque converter drains back into the transmission, and when you start it up, the fluid burps out the fill tube or out a vent. Maybe update to an aluminum Powerglide, it'll still be a "fairly stock" truck, and should bolt right in.
I am Butch/56sedandelivery.

 

That might be the way to go!

 

Butch, is a worn pump bushing and/or converter hub the usual culprit when this happens? I kind of get the idea that it might be

 

OUCH!

 

Didn't hurt, until they pulled it out!

 

x's 2. Tranny john did my powerflite for my hemi..

 

squirrel: On a couple of the Tri-Five Chevrolet sites, this is a common complaint, and has about a dozen different ways of correcting it. Most say to just start the car up every couple/few days. There's even a one way valve, that gets installed in one of the trans cooling lines, but it's real hit-and-miss in if it really works. I think it's just overall wear of the hard parts and bushings/sealing rings. I am Butch/56sedandelivery.

 

I spent 32 years as an X-Ray/CAT Scan Tech, and I've X-Rayed LOTS of various, foreign, embedded bodies; everything from nails to vibrators/coke bottles/vegetables!!! When we do an exam, we use lead markers that denote the side of the body (Rt VS Lt), or the side of the body part we're working with, ie Right hand, left knee, left shoulder, etc. So, I get an E.R. patient some 25 years ago, who was a fence installer. He had "nailed" his left hand to his right knee; the nail went right through his hand and imbedded in his knee cap. Now I'm thinking, "how do I mark these parts?" And how did the E.R. physician removed the nail? With Vice-Grips off course, and I kid you not! Strangest foreign body, before someone asks; a kid about 10 years old had been riding his minibike in the woods. He walked into the E.R., from several blocks away, by himself, holding onto a 2 foot long, roughly 1 inch diameter, dead tree branch, sticking out of the side of his neck. Got too close to a dead branch, and ran into it, breaking the branch off the tree.. You could see the end of the branch "tenting" on the opposite side of his neck; the branch had almost gone through-and-through. Kid went to the O.R., branch was removed, and it missed everything vital. I am Butch/56seda ndelivery.