hey guys my 580e has started to leak hydraulic oil from the hole in the bottom of the torque converter housing. it's leaking about 1 drop a second if i'm running the front loader hard. the leak is slowly getting worse but i have a job i want to finish that's going to take me a few more days. is it safe to just keep running it this way? can i just top off the oil every few hours and be fine? i have lots of power at the wheels, the leak doesn't seem to be affecting performance. if anyone has any advice i'd sure appreciate it. thanks
That's a pretty good leak wrecd, A few days probably won't hurt it - just keep the oil up to the shuttle. Hopefully it's not doing a flexplate, (causing cracking of mounting bolts on to convertor) ......... that will be the only thing that stops you. A bad pump seal will only keep on leaking. Keep your fingers crossed
Thanks alot alrman! it's running good so far but the leak is slowly but surely getting worse. is a bad pump seal somthing a backyard mechanic should try to fix himself? or is this a problem for the pro's only? thanks again
Well wrecd, I'm not sure of your capability. You need to remove the shuttle & in theory, replace the seal & refit the shuttle. Hopefully, the oil trail will be obvious when the shuttle is removed. If the spout on the convertor has any wear, it should be repaired. The alignment of the convertor needs to be checked if removed. To do that, a dial gauge is needed to check the runout on the spout. This should probably be checked anyhow, to be certain of a sure repair, & long seal life. Maybe the convertor needs to be pressure tested, if seal looks OK. If you go that far, it would be a good idea to check the rear engine oil seal as well.