Smoke from Bell Housing- A998 Auto

[Baskinator]

After changing the filter, gasket and fluid, and installing new steel trans cooler lines, I went to circulate the fluid by idling the car in neutral, planning to shift through the gears and get my '82 SX/4 (automatic) driving for the first time in 5 months.

When I started the car and went to shift through the gears, the car died in neutral with my foot on the brake. I adjusted the idle speed and tried again (my carb still needs to be adjusted correctly since rebuilding). This time, it idled very high and dropped about half the rpms in neutral, but stayed running. About 30 seconds later, the car started smoking real bad. I shifted back into park, as the engine seemed to be picking up the idle speed, and shut the car off quick. When I looked under the car, the smoke was pouring out of the bell housing.

My cooler lines leaked a little bit in one spot, but not enough for me to think they were the problem. The trans pan had at least a gallon of fluid in it as well. I hope I put the lines in the correct direction for my new external cooler, can someone clarify which connection on the trans(toward the front of car or rear) is the output?

I know the throttle linkage isn't adjusted correctly. It has rusted a bit, and the clip holding it together disappeared, along with the spring. I just connected the rod to the linkage when I was under there changing the lines.

I should probably check the adjustment of the gearshift linkage. One other thing I did was route the cooler lines around the rods instead of behind them. Don't know if this will be a problem, but it did obstruct the shift rod until I bent it away a little.

I read this could be due to the torque converter locking up when it shouldn't, or maybe the transfer case was in neutral. Any ideas what could have been causing the smoke?

[mudkicker715]

The rear line is the return.

[Baskinator]

Ok, so that was hooked up correctly, thanks.

[Sunny]

Any chance you just spilt some fluid in there, and it burnt off when it started to get hot? ATF makes a lot of smoke when it burns.

[BenM]

The torque converter doesn't get fluid in park, but it does in neutral. That could explain the engine load. Smoke might be spilled fluids or a bad seal somewhere.

[Baskinator]

I know the fluid was burning off of the exhaust because it leaked onto there so many times, but this was coming from the torque converter area, where the trans meets the engine, and I haven't touched that at all. Unless somehow it shot all the way from the line that wasn't fully tightened, because the union was right around the bell.

The weird part was that the running engine started to get really loud, like a very high idle, after it had died down in neutral. That's when I started to see a whole lot more smoke and shut it off.

I was afraid it might have been putting load on the front clutch and overheating it or something. But I don't really know too much about how the trans works yet.

[mudkicker715]

The torque converter doesn't get fluid in park, but it does in neutral. That could explain the engine load. Smoke might be spilled fluids or a bad seal somewhere.

Any time the torque converter is spinning its getting fluid

[Baskinator]

So I guess it's possible that the torque converter seal has a small leak and is burning off the fluid when it spins? Hopefully this isn't the problem.

At this point, I'm not totally intimidated to remove and rebuild the transmission. In fact, I really would like to give it a complete overhaul at some point so it's better than new. However, I want to be able to give it a test drive soon and avoid doing that right now because I don't have a whole lot of time for it, let alone an ideal place to work on the car.

[Baskinator]

Oh yeah, I also forgot to mention that the fluid in the torque converter probably still has a significant amount of coolant in it from my old cooler

I want to flush as much of this out as possible next time I'm home, that could quite possibly be messing up the seals.

[BenM]

The torque converter doesn't get fluid in park, but it does in neutral. That could explain the engine load. Smoke might be spilled fluids or a bad seal somewhere.

Any time the torque converter is spinning its getting fluid

A quote from Allpar:
There is also a hydraulic difference between neutral and park. This is due to "intentionally" reduced line pressure. The "park" location of the manual valve (inside the valve body) allows fluid to leak by a land off the valve thereby creating a line pressure drop. This low pressure in park keeps the converter from completely filling and loading the engine unnecessarily.

It may be getting a trickle of fluid. That's why they can't be checked in park, and why the torque converter will leak down when the engine is off, all due to that bleed.

[mudkicker715]

The torque conv spins so it pumps what it has out, thus creating a vacuum for a call for more thus called centrifical force. So what is in there will pump out. That check valve working properly will not allow backflow. If not a believer pull your return line. Its way more than a so called trickle.

The torque converter doesn't get fluid in park, but it does in neutral. That could explain the engine load. Smoke might be spilled fluids or a bad seal somewhere.

Any time the torque converter is spinning its getting fluid

A quote from Allpar:
There is also a hydraulic difference between neutral and park. This is due to "intentionally" reduced line pressure. The "park" location of the manual valve (inside the valve body) allows fluid to leak by a land off the valve thereby creating a line pressure drop. This low pressure in park keeps the converter from completely filling and loading the engine unnecessarily.

It may be getting a trickle of fluid. That's why they can't be checked in park, and why the torque converter will leak down when the engine is off, all due to that bleed.

Edited to say done on my end. No need to further stray off topic. Please if needed start a new topic.
Sorry for my envolvement

[Eagleearl]

I cannot think of anything in the bellhousing that would get hot enough to cause smoke. The torque converter has no vent to the bellhousing. The only thing I can think of smoke coming from the bellhousing is from the starter burning up. This should have quite a different smell than burning oil off the exhaust.

[Baskinator]

I have not tried starting it again yet, since I've been at school, but I'm home for Thanksgiving break. I'll give it a whirl once I can get the lines tightened up and everything situated.

[Baskinator]

Drove my car today for the first time in about 6 months! I've concluded that the smoke was merely water in the bell housing. My car endured a couple days in the rain while I was at school, and when I first started the car this time, brown water poured out of there. It must be leaking in from up top somehow. But it ran with no (major) problems for about 20 minutes.

I do need to adjust the shift linkage though. It has no Park gear, and every other one moved down a peg (Park is Reverse, Reverse is Neutral, Neutral is Drive...). Also need to get the kickdown linkage connected and adjusted.

[DaemonForce]

I know the pan gets very hot. When my transmission blew up a few months ago I noticed it smoking like crazy. After the rebuild, I rebolted everything and let it sit for about a week before dropping the pan again and letting all the condensation out. If I hadn't done that I would at least have a milky ATF mixture and probably be experiencing a smoking transmission or worse considering the amount I had to drain.

When swapping parts or doing an overhaul, make sure everything is in place before trying to drive again! Even if it's a simple test this is good practice.