If you drive your old Buick, sooner or later your going to need one. On a visit to Petit Jean Arkansas for the spring swap meet we got a big surprise. When leaving the motel one morning I noticed a rather huge oil spot under BOB. I could tell by looking it was tranny fluid. Right away I knew "This can't be good!". We were staying in Russellville at the time and I started to call the local transmission shops. I skipped right over the franchise locations and looked for ones that seemed local only. Got lucky on the first call! I spoke to the owner and explained the situation. When we got to the part about it being a 1956 Buick, he interrupted with "You need to talk to (CRS name), here is his number, he is outside of town about five miles.". After speaking to him on the phone and telling him our situation he gave me directions to his place. We drove out after adding about a quart of tranny fluid.
His son was working in the garage when we arrived. I told him the situation and he immediately went to get his father. His father had done auto trans repair for years and was very familiar with Dynaflow transmissions. As soon as he saw the car he said "probably the torque ball", putting the car on the lift confirmed that diagnosis. He had no repair parts and said since it was a drip rather than a very bad leak we could make it back to Texas if we kept a close eye on the fluid level.
I asked if he still did transmission work and was told he passed the shop onto his son. He asked us to step inside another building to see some of his other projects. We were surprised to see a few Honda Gold Wings in various stages of being converted into Trikes. He sells the conversion kits and does installs as well. Said he and the wife enjoyed their time on the road going to Wing Dings all over the country. All in all we had a nice visit.
On his advice we headed for Texas. Keeping an eye on the fluid level was not much of an inconvenience since it was a drip I think we only had to add fluid twice. The person that installed the A/C also did repair on older cars so he was a logical choice. I ordered the parts for repair and took BOB in for the repair. Two weeks later we were going to go to the Route 66 annual Oklahoma tour. Since we were leaving Friday morning I picked BOB up after work on Thursday. By the time I got to the driveway the tranny was slipping and I knew BOB was not destined for Route 66.
I called back to the repair shop and explained what happened. I was told that the repair parts did not look just right and he took a chance. I could bring it back in or he would not charge me. I chose to do the repair myself, after all, how hard could it be? We did do the tour that year, we just used the wife's Nissan 300 ZX, somehow route 66 did not seem the same that year, even with the T Tops off!
After disassemble and inspection I saw what was meant about not looking just quite right. I started by putting the torque ball on a plate and putting the inner cover with the seal over it. With the inner cover on the plate, you could lift the torque ball about 1/8 inch. No way that was going to seal! Thinking I got a bad inner cover I ordered another one. When it came I did the same test, and had the same results. I decided to add to the seal so the inner cover would not sit on the plate without being compressed. I went to an industrial supply and picked up an "O" ring of the size about the same as the seal. Then I took vulcanized rubber in a caulk tube and laid a bead around the "O" ring. After letting it cure, and testing again it seemed to be exactly what was needed. I have never had as much as one drop leak in the four years since this repair. Just in case, I did the one I ordered first the same way to have a spare.