Wow, struck a nerve. Those of you that have no leaks or even small enough ones that don't make a mess overnight, count yourselves lucky.
I think what happened to mine is the factory pan seal surface was worked too many times. The car has 168K miles on it and was very well taken care of, no rust underneath, good body panels, welded exhaust, etc. I would not be surprised if the original owner put 167K miles on it and changed fluid/filter in the trans on the regular maintenance schedule, then finally rebuilt the engine and trans and sold it to the kid I bought it from. The kid said he put about 1000 miles on it and then the trans just quit, didn't start slipping or hanging on shifts, just suddenly quit.
He was adamant that it wasn't the transfer case, but when I went to look at it the t-case vacuum lines were a mess and the t-case lever seemed to be centered. I was able to move it into both 2wd and 4wd and could hear vacuum sucking as I moved it. The car would not move at the time of course because the trans was all but empty when I pulled the pan (no metal shavings though). Found out later when I had it home, that after the trans quit, the kid's stepdad had taken it to a "mechanic" friend of his who apparently proceeded to take a bunch of stuff apart and odd things were missing like the trans dipstick ( I thought the kid was the culprit). My bet is either the frequent fluid changes weakened the pan or the friend torqued the fire out of it.
By the way, the double gasket trick didn't cut it either. It held for the first day after adding fluid, then puddled by the second, almost as bad as the single gasket and has been consistent every day after. Hadn't even gotten it out of the garage so its not bolts backing out. Rubber gasket, not cork, and not the 94-ish Cherokee gasket by FelPro someone here had mentioned. Just venting but, Advance Auto parts, which is based here in Roanoke, VA didn't even list the FelPro gasket. I was going to try NAPA next.
Anyway I'm looking to replace the pan, because apparently I couldn't straighten it or its been weakened by by being worked too often, like bending a paper clip until it breaks. If I do have to replace the pan, I don't want another thin steel one, but those structural ones sure are pricey. My hope when I found out this trans was rebuilt, was to get through this winter with the automatic and take my time swapping to the 5 speed before next winter, but this leak is too bad to try that yet.
Sorry to ramble, but I wanted to answer as many of the questions you might have for me as I could.
Topic: Always hated automatics (Read 11466 times)