Nissan Repair: 95 4x4 V6 Automatic Pathfinder Trans, pressure relief valve, pan gasket

Question

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-----Question-----
Leaking front seal replaced the seal.  Reinstalled the tranny and still leaked.  Took the tranny back out and took the pump apart and found a bad bushing and o-ring.  Had to order a new pump half to get the bushing and got new o-rings.  Put it back together and reinstalled it back in the truck and it leaked worse than it ever did.  Now my question, is the Torque converter the root cause of my problems and if you think that it is is there any way to test it?  Visually every thing looks fine but that just looking at it I'm not real sure where to turn from here.  The leaking worse than before has me stumped.
-----Answer-----
James,

I assume the torque converter is not scored where the seal meets it?  That is, the torque converter pushes into the transmission and that is where the seal makes contact.  In some cases I have seen a groove and that will make it leak.  Otherwise, the pump seal and bolts are sealed?  If yours has crush washers at the bolts be sure to replace them.  Now, you are sure it leaks out the bellhousing?  Email me back and let me know that is where it leaks.  If it leaks behind the bellhousings only slightly, the pan gasket is probably slipped back at the front most part and that makes it look like a leak from the front pump.

REPLY

It is definately leaking around the seal we had the pump apart last night again and do not see anything evidently wrong.  I took the torque converter to a trans guy who won't touch foriegn and he doesn't see any thing wrong with it.  I did not witness the leaking the second time as I have someone doing this job for me but he said that it is leaking worse than it ever did now with all the new parts in it.  Is it possible to be creating too much pressure in the pump i.e. pressure relief valve stuck or something like that.  I did see in the pump last night that there are two valves that sit 90 degrees form one aniother that have springs on them.  I tried to push them in but they won't move one is cylindrical and one looks like a roller ball.  Is it possible that this is where my problem lies?  The thing that I do not understand is that we replaced the parts in the pump and every thing apears to be in its rightful place.  The two valves that I speak of wrer not removed and I am not sure of the exact way that they work.  I wish that we had bought a whole new pump but we only purchased the front half I am not sure what to do.  We are geoghraphically challenged (Northern Maine)  no tranny guys in the area want to touch foriegn for fear of the unknown or lack of a bertter term untrained.  When the trans was rebuilt three years ago it was sent to a shop in Portland wich is aboiut a six hour drive from me and the bill was a little over $3000.  Thanks for your advice its greatly appreciated.  

Answer
James,

The pump could have a crack in it or the pressure relief valve could be stuck.  There is a pressure port on the case of the transmission that can be accessed to verify proper port pressure.  I would go to
http://www.nissan-techinfo.com/nissan/ and download the .pdf for your transmission to get the readings and procedure for your spcific model.  Also, if the input shaft seal is not installed properly it will leak large amounts of fluid.