Loud ticking noise... gear wouldn't shift.. all my tranny fluid gone!

[rayzian]

This has been a very bad week for me.

I was crusing along one night with my friends, when suddenly my caravan started making this ticking noise (which I didn't realize until I stopped by a friends house). The ticking noise went with the RPMs, the higher I revved, the faster they ticked. I had no idea WTF this was, so I wanted to do minimal driving and bring it home. Halfway home the tranny starts to have problems shifting into gear. At this point I'm scared, so I drop my friends off at a parking lot and hope I can get home, sadly I couldn't even exit the parking lot. I called up my uncle, he checked the tranny fluid and there was none! We bought some, put it in, and it finally kicked into gear.. but the loud ticking sound was still there. I got it home safe, started it the next day and noticed a puddle of the brand new tranny fluid I just put in is on my driveway.

I filled it up again, and checked where it was leaking.... but for some reason the leaking isn't consistant and I couldn't make out where the leak was (since it wasn't leaking for some reason). At this point I'm confused and in turmoil as I can't drive my baby anymore (waiting for my uncle to check it out).

Anyone know what's up?

[Chet42]

Sounds like the torque convertor is gone, that would explain the ticking "Dry torque convertor" and you have a few bad seals inside the transmission. The fluid most likely came from the pump seal which is located where the engine mates to the tranny. Your very lucky the convertor didn't just explode inside the tranny like they sometimes do.

Without seeing it i would guess your in for a rebuild. The tranny has to be taken apart to replace the seals and God knows what else, "torque convertor" , pump, ....

Chet.