turbo 400 guru's need help

[Eyegore]

My transmission yesterday started making the whinning noise, sounded like it was coming from the distributor at first. Since i could not locate the actual problem, I drove it around the block, and now i'm hearing grinding, and hesitation in the transmission. I did have a leak (small), but I'm reluctant to warm the engine and transmission up to check the level because of the whinning noise. Need your advice.

Tom