Postby arkangel » Tue Nov 29, 2011 7:10 pm
She's got 116300 miles. I bought her because she was in such great shape for the mileage. The oil was clean, but since the tranny dipstick was bolted down I decided not to check it (kicking myself now, but if the tranny fails I'll be kicking the sh*t salesman who worked me over)
UPDATE: Ok folks, I'm in the middle of my second round of transmission fluid changes. I'm going to do three tonight and maybe another before our trip. Here's the skinny on my situation up to this point:
1. Definitely had a good deal of antifreeze in the rad. I had lost enough into the tranny that the heater wasn't coming to full temp. (Another warning sign that something was way wrong)
2. On a lighter note, I drove the Path all the way to work today with no shudder at all. I just drove it around the block to agitate the mixture before the next drain and I didn't feel any problems. In fact, she seems to shift a little smoother out of first now as well.
3. I performed the cooler bypass mod (extremely easy to swap hoses, I don't know why anyone messes with the double barbed fitting) and it seems to be flawless. I just hope it wasn't too late.
So thus far the signs are good, but who knows for sure. Does anyone with some real transmission work experience have any thoughts? I'd like to think I'm a good judge of mechanics and the transmission seems 2x better than before, but I'm not sure just how bad things get before the sh*t really hits the fan. I'm also curious to know how the hell you all got a hose into the fill hole on the tranny. I bought the ATF by the quart and the pump hose didn't even fit anyway. I finally just poured that sh*t right down the dipstick tube because I was tired of being covered in ATF. It all came out in the wash anyway though.
In any case I am still in need of some advice so anything you could offer up would be fantastic. I'm going to get back to the wrench, see you in the morning!
Ark