Re: Front main seal replacement on FWD van.
As a former Ford tech, and an owner of a 98 Windstar that I have managed to keep on the road to tthis day, I will give you the low down on the job you are inquiring about.
First a little insight on the Windstar, the drivetrain of a Windstar is nothing more than a Taurus drivetrain with a minivan body, the transmissions are notoriously weak. Most start to show signs of upcoming failure with hard shifts and if you keep a close eye on it.....overdive dropping in and out at highway speeds (usually denoted by a rpm drop/rise of about 200rpm).
Often times the front seal on the trans isn't actually failing, what is happening is that the torque converter is failing and overheating, thus boiling the trans fluid, it then forces the boiling fluid through the front seal because it has nowhere else to go.
It is very common practice to replace the torque converter when replacing the front seal because to replace a $10 seal and put it back together to find out it was the converter causes many a headache and extra money spent on labor.
The truly best way to remedy the situation is to have the trans rebuilt by a reputable shop, if they are worth their salt they will rebuild it with all of the later upgrades (and there were alot of them) and also have them replace the converter...................now the big problem.
It would run about $1500-$2000 to get it done and the vans are not worth that in resale value.
A good way to check it is to use an IR temp gun, check the temps on the trans cooler lines in and out of the trans, this will tell you if it's an overheating issue caused by the converter, another thing that commonly causes it is the trans cooler portion of the radiator becoming clogged.
