Third time is almost a charm.

[Shvegel]

Well I finally had a chance to work on my own car for a change(I am a mechanical foreman in a Saab dealership) I have been chasing a transmission leak for the entire summer.
  The first time I pulled the transmission I replaced the front seal and put it back together again and I still had a huge leak. Then I found out that the torque converers that are riveted together can leak at the seam between the hub and body of the coverter so I researched the situation and found that a converter with a welded hub was the way to go. This began a search at my favorite part supplier(Ebay) which netted me a brand new in the box from Mercedes torque converter with a welded seam. Sure it was from a 111 but it looks the same Which leads me to tranmission pull number 2.
  I pulled the trans and went to replace the converter when I discovered to my horror that it was not the right converter and so I improvised on the spot and used some epoxy paste to seal the converter and put it back together. Well, it was better. Instead of leaking a quart every three days it leaked about a quart a month. Still not good enough.
  Attempt number three began Thursday night. I pulled the trans yet again and TIG welded all the seams and the rivets and air tested it with 30PSI of air(Thanks to Joe Alexander's hard earned experience I cleaned the inside of the converter with non-flamable solvent and then with soap and hot water, all to avoid having the converter flare up during the welding process...Thanks again Joe for allowing me to keep my eyebrows!). I ended up replacing the seal again, the front pump seal O-ring and the diaphram for the vacuum modulator. Back up in the air again and into the car in record time, all things going extremely well until I go to install the speedometer cable, I tug on the cable to find the end and it won't budge(I had looped it over the engine to keep it from dragging on the floor when I pushed the car across the shop)I had managed to pinch the cable between the engine and transmission not only ruining the cable but causing me to have to loosen everything up yet again to pull the cable out.
 Well, it's finally leak free after 3.5 attempts! I drove it around a bit with a light snow falling and lamented the fact that it is time to put her away for the winter. Almost 8,000 miles this summer and it just flew past.

[ja17]

Good job Pat. Persistance finnaly pays off! I usually get the ground cable stuck between the eng/trans instead of the speedo cable. I remember that you had to completely tear down the engine when you got the car in order to get it running. It must be doing fine now.

Joe Alexander
Blacklick, Ohio

[Shvegel]

I did have to go through the engine, replace the entire brake hydralics,fuel lines,tires,hoses,dist cap and wires,rebuilt the alternator,starter, replaced the water pump, motor mounts, front subframe mounts,exhaust system, cleaned and lined the fuel tank with POR 15 etc etc.
 I Still need to patch a couple of small cracks in the radiator,find a new speedo cable and a neutral safety switch cable and then put it away ready to roll next year.