Can I ghetto-rig a rusty side cover?

[acdcguitarchick]

Wow, I'm really loving this car lately..

Suddenly (Or at least it seems sudden, I just noticed it yesterday out of nowhere), I have an extreme tranny fluid leak, the gasket and pan are leaking like crazy... which is fixable- no big deal.

However, the side cover is almost completely rusted through and is also starting to leak. In order to replace that completely... I'd pretty much end up spending more than my car is worth.

Is there anything I can put on the side cover to make it last as long as possible? Something that won't come off with tranny fluid leaking out?

 

[93rev2sev]

Why would it cost so much to replace the side cover? You should be able to get one from a junk yard and change it yourself in a couple of hours.

 

[hawkeye18]

the side cover is fairly easily replaceable in the car. It's really not that much harder than the bottom gasket...

 

[acdcguitarchick]

Really? Yeah the dude who was looking at it was telling me it'd be almost impossible because I'd have to go to a junkyard and drop a whole tranny out of a car to get to it...... Is it easier than that? Maybe this guy's just an idiot. lol I wouldn't be surprised anymore... it seems like no "mechanics' actually know anything about these damned cars. I'm getting more accurate help on this forum!!

 

[93rev2sev]

Really? Yeah the dude who was looking at it was telling me it'd be almost impossible because I'd have to go to a junkyard and drop a whole tranny out of a car to get to it...... Is it easier than that? Maybe this guy's just an idiot. lol I wouldn't be surprised anymore... it seems like no "mechanics' actually know anything about these damned cars. I'm getting more accurate help on this forum!!

For years, I got the runaround from "mechanics". The breaking point was about 10 years ago when I took my 89SHO to a "master" mechanic to have the heater core swapped out. 2 days and $300 later he said the job was done.

He had cut the A/C lines and broken several plastic dash parts. To top it off, 3 months later, the damn thing was leaking again. Needless to say, I did the next one myself....in one Saturday morning for the cost of the heater core...$29.00.

I'm tellin ya...learn to work on the car yourself. The cost of tools will easily be offset by the fact that you aren't paying labor charges...multiple times in many cases.

 

[acdcguitarchick]

Not surprised by that at all. My boyfriend or friends of the family usually do my labor with no problems. We don't have a lift at home, so I figured I'd just let the mechanics at my work tell my where/why it was leaking... I was just concerned about the whole having-to-drop-a-whole-transmission-out thing in a junkyard. That sounds like kind of a pain in the ass, if not nearly impossible. I'm friends with a parts manager ( I work at a dealership/service center) who has some favors owed to her by the tranny shops around here so she's going to try and find me a used side cover from them...

 

[93rev2sev]

Tranny shops are probably a great place to find one...never thought of that.

 

[1993MTXSHO]

just post in the wtb section im sure youll find someone thats got one laying around.

 

[hawkeye18]

It's just a regular ol' AXODE/AX4S/AX4N tranny side pan. There are friggin' millions of tauruses laying around with those. All you have to do is remove the air box, cruise control module, and a few other obvious things (upper rad hose comes to mind), and you can get it from above. You can also get to it from below pretty easily.