I have an 89 aero, 3.0 - been having minor slipage issues lately, so I checked the fluid, (warm and in park) and it was BARELY on the stick!
So, I added a little at a time of some merc, (not 5, the older one) - and now the tranny shifts perfectly! no more hard shifts into 2nd, or bangs in reverse... seems to be as good as it ever was.
But, I now notice that the fluid level is about 1/2 an inch higher than the crosshatches... on the stick but I only added about 1/2 a quart, so 2 pints in total.
So, my question is, how much "wiggle room" does the stick have? I mean, I only added half a quart here, and it works great now, but I know that overfilling a tranny is bad to do....
I have a vaccum pump (hand pump) - can I just stick the tube down the fill/check neck, and pump out 1/4 of a pint or so? or should I just leave it alone?
what is the worst that would happen, if the level is like 1/2 an inch higher than the hatches?
I don't want to shorten the life of the tranny, or cause a leak, or something...
if you are not having any shifting problems now and the ATF is not foamy on the dip stick after a hard freeway run, leave it
best way to remove a small amount is loosen one of the tranny cooler lines into the radiator or take off one of the neoprene jumper lines on the cooler lines to the tranny cooler in front of the radiator
find where the leak is at. may be a failing pan gasket
the cork ones fail or loose bolts on pan
so, if I drive it 20 miles on the freeway (in lock up) - and no foaming, I'm cool - but, if I start to see foaming, take a little out...
will the foaming cease then, or once the fluid foams, is it ruined?
could be around the pan... don't see it dripping... if it's losing fluid it's not very much at once, since I think the last time I checked it was about 3 years ago
The leak is not as big of a deal to me as being overfilled...
can I just stick a tube down the pipe and use my hand pump to take some back out the same way it went in? or do I risk any damage that way? I get nervous dealing with those cooler lines without a good set of flare wrenches... don't want to jar anything, or strip the nut either...
was actually, just thinking of loosening one side of the pan bolts to drain, but then, if I'm going to do all that, I might as well drop the pan, and do a filter, gasket, and fluid change too, even though that is more than I wanted to do at the moment :-)
M M 67- The term "foaming" comes from the vent (top) when too much fluid mixes with moving parts thus creating a sort of foaming event. The foam so to speak is the left over moisture created from the fluid and moving parts interacting and the inert fluid not having any where to go. The fluid then puts to much pressure on your seals and then trys to expell from the vent out of the top. You normally won't see "foam", but you will smell the burnt transmission fluid coming from the smell when it gets on hot moving parts under your van like the exhaust and back of the block when it shoots out. The wiggle factor you brought up is true. When you look at your dip stick concentrate on the lower mark. The dip stick when it is installed down the neck of the filler tube goes into the tranny at an 30 degree angle. As the dip stick is lying down in the fluid the lower part of the stick will be submerged more than the side of the stick that is on top. I leaned this from a Ford mechanic long ago because I was over servicing my 1990 3.0 extended at the time and eventually caused it to fail. It would shoot out a rooster tail of transmission fluid onto peoples cars when I was on hilly trips. The fluid was getting to hot from foaming and shot out like Mt. St. Helens. What 96 is right. He is just trying to save you from doing too much work, but if you surrender to the fact that you might want to go ahead and pull the pan and get to the filter that wouldn't be such a bad idea either. On all of my pans of my Aero's I have gotten spare pans from salvage yards and installed plugs on the bottom for draining just like the oil pan. They sale these kits everywhere and in different bolt sizes. I even paid attention and have a magnetic plug in my tranny pan just like my oil pan to have added protection of picking up metalic flakes.
__________________ 1994 Extended Black Sport 4.0 2 wheel drive 1994 Extended Blue/gold 4.0 Eddie Bauer 4 whl-drive 1993 Extended Blue/gold 4.0 Eddie Bauer 4 whl-drive 1992 Shorty Blue 3.0 2 wheel drive +1989 Extended Red 3.0 2 wheel drive ="5ive"Aerostar'sP-R-I-C-E-L-E-S-S signed B O Z
thanks, yeah, I figured foaming was caused by a "milkshake" sort of speak...
I love your idea of the plug into a spare pan, and then just do a swap... that really would be the best idea, and then, if this ever happened again, I could just drain the pan...
plus, I'm more likely to change the fluid more often if it's as easy as an oil change - maybe even every 20K or so... yeah, I know it doesn't get it all, but at least it's a move in the right direction....
I figure if I do this, I will put in a KandN or whatever the best filter I can buy is, and then only drain the pan every once in a while, maybe like every year or something.
But, where can I find a good kit to do this? I guess you just tap a hole in the bottom of a pan, and they give you everything else?
still wondering if I can just spiphon out the excess fluid with my hand held pump that I have.... yeah it's the easier way, but time is not on my side right now in my life...
I could take a photo of the stick to show you all where it is when it's hot in park - btw - the fluid never gets hot I have found... even if the engine is at 200 degrees, the tranny fluid is warm at best... which I guess is a good thing, since heat would kill the lube properties of the oil, and thus kill the tranny....
I'll drive it in the next day or two, and really keep a look out on that lower end of the stick.
You probably can get some of that clear plastic tubing from the hardware and feed it down the dipstick tube. Make sure you have enough to drop the other end nearly to the floor. Then syphon out some fluid. Small diameter tube will go very slowly. Easier if fluid warm. Don't do hot, tube will get too soft. I have syphoned excess from my Aerostar. Now I have a plug, a cheezy one (B&M kit) but it works.
I also just learned something from my local tranny shop. Fluid can pool inside the dipstick tube and cause a false reading. Check the fluid again after driving it a short distance to make sure the fluid drains out of the tube into the transmission. The shop added some fluid to mine, they only put in about 1/2 quart, and it went from not on the stick to overfull. They then drove it forward about 10 feet, then reversed back to the parking space. He checked it again, and it was just below the bottom of the crosshatch area.
Check the fluid after a few more days of driving. After the usual warm-up drive, shift the transmission through all the gears, staying in each gear for about 15-30s. Then put it back in P and check the fluid. When you read the fluid, check both sides of the dipstick. One side almost always reads higher than the other side, but the true level is on the side that reads lower.
What I'm trying to say is, since the transmission is shifting fine, your fluid level may be just right and you might have misread it. Even if it's 1/2" higher than the crosshatch, it should be OK. In my experience, 1/2" above the crosshatch means you overfilled it by an ounce or so, too little to worry about.
About the filter, just go to your local transmission shop and buy a filter and gasket from them. Insist on a fiber gasket, not the cork. The cork gasket will spring a leak in no time at all. A fiber gasket, on the other hand, will do the job nicely, but install it dry without any sealant such as RTV.
I like the screen filter, less restriction on the intake to the ATF pump
I use neoprene pan gaskets when avail with a light skim coating of auto tranny safe RTV
stick with national brands of filters and gaskets-SPX Motorcraft AC Delco Fram Wix. I'm now seeing cheap knockoff Chinese import filters that fail with case splitting, screen or pad filter disintegrating contaminating tranny
ebay is dumping lots of these cheap knockoff forgeries
make sure the old O rings come out of the filter tube holes and the new O rings are on the new filter tubes. attachment bolt just snug
retorque the valve body bolts per specs, cause of many tranny problems
I just now checked it again, ice cold - didn't even drive it today yet, and it's a good inch over the hatchmarks, but I have a slanted driveway too... I don't think it was quite that high when I did all this on level ground.
if I decide to pull the pan, and change the filter, how tough is that to do? is it as easy as doing the filter on the block for an oil change? does it just pop in, and there is a retaining bolt that holds it on? or what?
Also, does anyone know the exact capacity then of what the pan drains out, so when I go to refill it, I can be dead on this time?
I'm still amazed that it was reading so low to start with, and now looks so much higher, with only adding 2 pints of fluid, but I guess even 1 pint low is like 20 gallons to the tranny... this stick must measure in ounces or something.
The good news, is that once I get the fluid correct, looks like the tranny will be fine, so that is a good thing....
Can I use Merc 5 for the refill on the pan drop, or should I stay with a non Synthetic, since that is what is in there now. (can I mix the 2)
I plan on using a Motorcraft filter, or wix actually and a fiber or neoprene. I like the idea of not having to use a sealant, so I may lean towards that option as copper said
do I have to remove the valve body bolts to pull the filter? I thought it was just drop the pan, and the filter was right there, no? I don't want to mess with the valve body bolts, etc... as 96 said, I'm sure they would have to be torqued correctly.
yeah, I like ebay for some things, but not for this - too important :-)
the amount of ATF that drains out with a pan drop and filter change varies depending on the transmission and leakdown from the torque converter.
measure the amount you drain out and put in 1/2 qt less. warm up the engine and shift thru the gears. measure again, add to bottom of crosshatch
drive for 10 miles and recheck. fill to mid cross hatch only
valve body does NOT have to be pulled to change filter
do NOT use Mercon5 V unless you have a '97 Aero
use Mercon/DextronIII rated ATF, mineral oil non synthetic is fine unless you tow lots. Valvoline Maxlife is very good with seal conditioners and strong base oil. use a brand name only, stay away from the retail parts stores house brands. Walmart carries a quality lowcost ATF, SuperTech http://theoildrop.server101.com/forums/postlist.php?Cat=0&Board=UBB16
remove all the pan bolts except a couple in the front. loosen these slowly and pry lightly on back seal of pan to allow ATF to slowly drain out one back corner of the pan. saves getting drenched in hot ATF.
clean pan bottom of all junk. there should be a couple strip magnets in the bottom clean and replace in same location
yeah, I topped off using GTX I think - it was that or the maxlife, but the only maxlife that they had at wal mart was the newer one Merc V, etc...
The one I used said Dex III, and older Ford Mercron, so that was the one I got...
96 - if I drive it and see, like you said, do I risk damage to anything other than the pan seal, which I was going to replace anyways?
In other words, if I drive it overfilled, can it blow the TC seal, or rear seal? or? - I just don't want to cause any problems to it while I wait and see if it foams...
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