C4 kickdown lever seal - pull the neutral safety switch?

[jacrz]

I am working to address a transmission fluid leak that is gathering and dripping from the neutral safety switch, ideally attacking it through replacement of the outer o-ring for the kickdown rather than replacing the inner seal (hope springs eternal). I removed the outer screw and washer, then pulled off the kickdown lever, removed another thinner washer, and now I am seeing what appears to maybe be another washer of some sort (which doesn't seem to want to slide off), before the neutral safety switch. Am I seeing this correctly, and do I need to remove the neutral safety switch in order to get at the location of the old o-ring? I am not yet seeing the o-ring.

 

[RangerRob]

I just did this recently and had planned on going the full route of replacing the shift lever seal as well. Bought all of the parts required to drop the pan and replace all seals along with the filter. Surprisingly (and hopefully in your experience) replacing only the kick down o-ring stopped the leak! I kept all of the parts acquired for a "rainy day".

To answer your question, yes you need to remove the neutral safety switch to get to that old o-ring. The new one didn't look much different than the old one but pressing it in as far as possible and buttoning everything back up cured my leak. Be sure and clean the area well so you can tell if it leaks again. The NSS seems to hold quite a bit of fluid. Luckily I didn't need to reset anything since I put things back together and made note of the witness marks on the bolts holding the switch in place.

Good luck!