Well changed my oil today in the old girl. I was shocked how flimsy the oil pan metal is. When I went to take the pan plug out which was on to tight I was afraid the pan was going to warp or something dumb. Never have seen one with such thin metal.
I noticed that the I assume the orig fly wheel cover is still on the car. Perfect shape PLASTIC still in place, not beat up much at all.
There are 500 places to lube the front end parts on the car. Going to have to get on those soon.
I want to get the trans fluid changed. Does the converter have a drain plug in it? I assume dropping the pan on these is easy. What type of gasket should be used on it?
First time under the car. Car appears to have lived life in the Ohio region. The floor pan from the bottom is pretty clean. There is some surface rust in a few spots but pretty clean. Looks like all the brake lines are clean of rust.
I have to wonder it the rotors on the front are orig? I had a 70 Camaro that had rotors with a GROOVE in the middle of the rotor surface. I saw this on mine today on the INNER side of the rotors.

 

and while checking to oil I tried to figure out why the wiper washers did not work. So I blew through the lines and POOF they worked.

 

There was no drain plug on the transmission on my '73 Custom Cruiser. Just drop the pan little by little by loosening the bolts and be ready for a mess. As far as the gasket when replacing, I just went to the auto parts store and bought whatever they had. No problems. Just don't overtighten the bolts and warp the pan. That's what usually causes leaks, not a bad gasket, especially if new.

 

is there a way to drain all the fluid out of the system? Makes no sense dropping the pan and getting only a portion of the fluids.

 

There is no need to do this. If the transmission is working ok, just drop the pan, replace the filter, and add in the amount of fluid needed, which I think is something like 3 quarts. That's the standard service on a transmission that's otherwise working ok. I don't think there's any way to get all the fluid out without disassembling it, and you wouldn't do that unless you were doing a complete overhaul.

 

The trans is fine, no issues at all. I thought at this age (1974) and 70k miles a full flush would be warranted. So drop the pan, put in a new filter and replace lost fluids and call it a day? What type of fluid should I use? Any additives needed?

 

You want to be careful not to fix what ain't broken. Transmission fluid does not get dirty like oil does. That's why the oil-change interval back then was 3,000 miles while the transmission fluid change interval was 24,000.

70,000 miles on a car is not all that much. Under normal conditions, it might have had the fluid changed twice, once at 24,000 and again at 48,000. The next one would be at 72,000 miles, and with 70,000 miles on the car now, you're about due for the third one. And unlike the oil change interval, which was 3,000 miles or 3 months, there's no mention of time for transmission fluid changes (at least not in the owner's manual for my '73). It just says every 24,000 miles, or every 12,000 miles if operated under load (lots of trailer towing) or in dusty conditions.

Remember, even though you're not changing all the fluid, at each interval, you are changing some of the fluid, and you are changing the filter.

My '67 Delta 88 has about double the miles your car has, and, as far as I know, it's never had anything other than regular transmission fluid changes. I did it myself back in 2011 after I had owned the car for two years, and since then, the car has had about 2,000 miles put on it (I don't drive it a ton). The transmission shifts beautifully, and I wouldn't think of touching it.

As far as what fluid, go to O'Reilly's or Autozone and get Dexron. I think they're up to Dexron III now. Or something equivalent. No need for additives. Additives weren't needed then, and they're not needed now. Again, let's not fix what ain't broken.

 

well it is certainly no broke so just a drop of pan and filter change, top it back off and keep on going. The car has not has tons of miles put on it before I got it. I have only put 2k on it in a year but prob will go about that many over the next year.

 

For an otherwise normally-functioning transmission, that's all it's ever been. The Turbo-Hydramatic is a very bulletproof transmission.

 

As Jaunty said, Nope.



Dropping the pan is easy.

Not getting a hot bath is hard.

Forewarned is forearmed - the transmission pan is a whole lot sneakier than a border collie playing hide-and-seek, and it'll get you when you least expect it.

- Eric

 

People ask the question about a drain plug often. I think the reason the manufacturers never put one it is precisely because the fluid is changed so much less often than the oil is. It was cheaper to not put one in, of course, and I'd bet that, if there had been a drain plug, it would have been more a source of frustration than of help. It would have been opened so rarely, relatively speaking, that it likely would have been difficult to loosen and might have resulted in damaged transmission pans as people wrenched on the bolt to get it loose.

Another reason that a drain plug might not have been included is that, unlike the oil filter, to get at the transmission filter requires removing the pan, anyway, which would result in the fluid being drained one way or another, anyway, so a drain plug, while convenient, would have been redundant.

 

lol

 

In the ol days we used to drill and plug the torque convertor to drain em. I'm in the camp that if the trans fluid is still nice and red with no strange smell, leave it alone.

 

another thing I found while under the front end was that the pass front spring had some type of spacer in it.

 

Not unusual to find the spacer. If a spring had weakened it was common for a front end shop to install one to correct ride height and alignment on that side of the car. I'm told that some factory air cars may have gotten them to offset the weight of the A6 compressor.


Transmission pans at one time had drain plugs. Why don't trans pans have drain plugs now? Because there are well-meaning yahoos in the world who will go under their car, remove what they thought was the engine oil drain plug, drain the transmission and add 5 quarts more oil to the engine. And then wonder why their engine is blowing oil out of every seam and their car will not move.


I know of one young mechanical engineer who did that very thing to his wife's Honda. And this kid was studying for his North Carolina PE license...


Yesfan, just do a filter and fluid service and you should be fine if the transmission is currently functioning well. If you really want all the old fluid out, most trans shops can do a trans flush thru the cooler lines which will flush the transmission case and valve body, the torque converter, and the radiator oil cooler.


Meself, I'd pay someone else to do this job. Every time I have ever changed trans fluid I ended up with red oil in my hair, in my beard, in the crack of my ****...