Reseal Fluid Drive in 1950 Coronet

[Harley PHD]

My car has been parked for 20 years outside.  I've built a new shop so I can finally work on it.  After new brake lines, MC, wheel cylinders rebuilt, Dot 5, the clutch slipped from being oil soaked.  I installed the Andy Bernbaum seal kit in the fluid drive. When I pressure check it (15 psi) there is a small leak at the carbon seal.  Is this normal? I took it apart and tried both sides of the carbon seal and the back side of the old carbon seal and ended up with the shiny side of the new carbon seal against the seal surface.  I know water pump carbon seals "break in", so I'm going to see if this one will break in too.  🤞

[Harley PHD]

Had to make a special wrench

leakage after lunch

[oldodge41]

Sorry, I can't answer, but some of our members may be able to. Welcome to the forum.

[Tom Skinner]

There is a Fluid Drive Guru on here called DodgeB4ya. He can say for sure if there is a break in period on the carbon seal or not. I have owned several 1948 Chrysler's with Fluid Drive since 1974 and none of my Seals have leaked. When reading the Service Manual there is an extreme caution not to scratch or score any surface the Carbon Seal rests in. I hope that a break in period is all you need to stop the leak. I am not sure if the system is pressurized, so pressurizing it to 15psi may not even be necessary.

I hope someone can help here, I sometimes wonder weather I should buy the Seal Kit for myself, but being 68 I am probably running out of time to even work on a Fluid Drive Torque Converter without the help of another. I did buy a complete set of Fluid Drive Service Tools years ago and have them all for my Unit, but time rolls on and it is unstoppable. I hope someone here with more knowledge can chime in. I hope your system is OK and turns out that pressurizing it is not necessary for the Unit to work.

By the Way Nice Homemade Tool !

Tom

Huntersville, NC.

[kencombs]

No real experience with that seal but I'd bet that the presence of the fluid would stop that leak.   The ground surfaces will still have minute imperfections that are filled and sealed by the oil itself.   Can't guarantee that of course, and it's a long way back in there if I'm wrong.   So let's wait for an expert.

[Harley PHD]

I went ahead and put it together. I was just doing a pressure test on the fluid drive like looking for a leak in a tire.  I almost got it together and noticed the governor threads on the housing had cracked off.  I found one on eBay (NOS) and looked at my 47-year-old transmission wiring harness I made in high school and replaced the wire ends on it.  It starts and runs again, but I have to let the snow melt to test drive it. Its leaking a little bit now.  I will see what happens, I bought 5 gal. of iso 32 oil so I can top it off and monitor the leak.

[oldodge41]

Thanks for the follow-up. Let us know how it goes.