leaky pan gasket - ive changed the fluid and filter in my truck what a pain. it leaks now. haynes manual said to put grease on the gasket to help ...

ive changed the fluid and filter in my truck what a pain. it leaks now. haynes manual said to put grease on the gasket to help keep it in place so i did and it leaked. dont know if these gaskets an be removed and reused being i havent even driven the truck on the road since the fluid change. was wondering if i just got a cheap kit i purchased it at autozone. i did the fluid change on my neighbors truck and used rtv sealant and a fisher auto fliter and gasket and his hasnt leaked since. any comments or similar problems?

I assume you are dealing with the automatic transmission. The gaskets that come with the filter kits always leak for me as well. I always get a Fel-pro brand gasket and use it (never had a leak using their brand gasket). Make sure you clean and dry the sealing surface of the transmission and pan completely (do not use any sealant or grease). Never use RTV on an automatic transmission.

why cant you use the rtv sealant. the reason i used a supplemental sealer was cuz when you get the pan in position the gasket always slides around and is never on correctly and its awkward to hold the pan up and install the bolts. the gasket i bought was too small around the bolt holes had to push em through with force

usually most gaskets will have a few smaller holes in them so you can feed a few bolts through and they will hold gasket in place while you start those bolts, then all the others are lined up. id never use anyother kinds of sealent either personally.

And be sure not to over torque the bolts on the tranny pan also cause that can cause it to leak.

heavychevy1/2 wrote:why cant you use the rtv sealant. the reason i used a supplemental sealer was cuz when you get the pan in position the gasket always slides around and is never on correctly and its awkward to hold the pan up and install the bolts. the gasket i bought was too small around the bolt holes had to push em through with force

RTV sealant can come off inside the pan (after it dries) in small pieces and clog small passeges in the valve body or cause valves to stick, leading to numerous transmission problems. I was taught to never use RTV on an automatic transmission for this reason. I know that some manufacturers (Jeep) do use it on their automatic transmissions though. I would always use only a gasket if one was available. The Felpro pan gasket has the holes for the bolts sized to where it will hold all the bolts in place for you (I think the gasket you used was like that as well). All you have to do it start them all then go through and tighten in the proper sequence and torque.

stupid question though i get your point and that makes a lot a sense but muffler is usually in the way and the tranny shifter cable bracket is in the way. i tries removing the two torx bolts after meticulously cleaning them and i stripped the star bit tool! si i know they are not coming out my point is its awkward and difficult to do all this thats why i did a light coat of rtv so i could fandangle the pan into place in those tight quarters without having the gasket run all over the place. its not that i was worried about sealing the pan im sure the new gasket torqued properly would do just fine

You may not have a problem using it (RTV), I would just never do so myself. So, I take it you got it fixed?

had bolts stripped out so had to nut and bolt the pan in a couple spo9ts and tap and rethread one now it leaks again but it has been sitting for a while so im hoping when i get it on the road and drive it that the fluid wont leak and the gasket will swell up and do its job

Did you replace the gasket? Like the others are saying, cheap crap gaskets can cause leaks, too.