I am a Fool

My truck was leaking ATF at a very slow rate around a cooler line where a Oring is so I figured the Oring was bad. I believe the one leaking was the higher one which I believe is the outlet. Well the drip was slow enough that I put it off for a while and then it stopped. I just figured since the truck had not ran for a year or so that the Oring was dry and swelled up and had stopped leaking.

I dropped the pan and replaced the filter thinking that may have been it. However my truck smells like burning ATF after I am done driving it. My current thought is that the cooler line is clogged and is starving the torque converter because I checked the fluid and it still looks brand new.

She is not shifting as well and thankfully I only drive 5 miles a day.

So the question is do I just unhook the cooler line and see if fluid comes out and blow some air into to get rid of the clog or could it be the torque converter that is clogged. Hell could the radiator be clogged as well? Do these have a fluid pump or does the torque converter push the fluid itself?

What would your plans of attack be?

 

Set truck on fire. Call insurance company, claim some 'inner city kids' did it.

 

I would start with making sure fluid is flowing. I assume the cooler line was leaking at the pan?

 

Yeah it was leaking at the elbow that goes into the tranny.

 

What type of fluid did you put in?

 

Well it stopped leaking before I changed the fluid. I put valvoline synthetic atf in it. It was more of a drain and fill so if any of the fluid would have came from the torque converter it would have mixed with the new making it a brownish red but it is still just red.