6r80 transmission pan gasket dilemma

[George_San_Jose1]

@oldtimer-11

I would then twist steel wool into thin lengths and with J B Weld into them and put them up into the stripped hole and hand thread the stud up into the hole and carefully wipe off any J B Weld that was not up in the hole. Never had any leaks afterward.

Interesting. I’ve used thin copper wire wound around the bolt in a similar manner to re-jigger my carb’s accel pump stripped mounting holes, but never used the add’l JB Weld. One thing I’d worry about w/the JB Weld is it might be nearly impossible to remove the bolt for later servicing. Did you have that problem?

[oldtimer-11]

I turned the bolts into studs by cutting off only the threaded [prtion and after putting the pan back on after the JB Weld hardened secured it with a nut and lock washer… Any of the JB I got on the mating surfaces or protruding threads I carefully wiped off before it hardened. To take off the pan, the studs stayed in place and you just removed the nuts.

[George_San_Jose1]

Great idea. I think I can use that for my carb as well. Nuts will hold the accel pump in place as well as bolts I expect. Not sure what the carb is made of, but it is a pretty crumbly material.

[JoeMario]

@oldtimer-11

I stopped using transmission pan gaskets about 45 years ago when I questioned the Plymouth dealer oarts guy why my transmission filter did not come packaged with a gasket like the aftermarket ones…

He said because the cars come from the factory with RTV sealer. Chrysler recommends aginst using a gasket.

I was working in a Chrysler-Plymouth dealership back in the 70s when this transition happened.

One day as I was finishing up a rear differential repair, I walked up to the parts counter to get a replacement gasket. The parts guys told me they just got word there will be no more gaskets for that, and instead to use RTV sealer.

I, along with every mechanic in the shop was surprised to learn of this. And everyone looked at the finished job while it was still on the lift, just to satisfy their curiosity on if it worked or not.

[cigroller]

Not being a mechanic, my perspective might be different. I never questioned whether the RTV is generally effective for sealing. I have used it before and never had a leak problem (“when used as directed”). But every time I’ve pulled a pan or whatever that was sealed with RTV, I found cleaning it up to be a nuisance. So since I regularly serviced my own regularly (which means the clean-up is on me and not all that rare) I’ve always just preferred gaskets since they tend to just peel right off cleanly. That does depend on the type of gasket tho.

I was also always paranoid about having squeeze-out shards ending up floating around inside of things (like transmissions). But that’s partly a “use as directed” and experience thing, I’d imagine.