Can anyone tell me how to drain the trainny fluid from the torque converter , Im dropping the pan and installing new filter and fluid, I want to get as much of old fluid out as i can It has a 3.0 engine with overdrive Thanks for any info...

 

You will need to take it in to a transmission specialist and have them hook up the lines to a machine and run it with new fluid thus ejecting the old fluid.

Do you have a transmission fluid cooler in it? It is a small radiator about 16 by 12 inches located it the slit in your front bumper.

 

I completely changed the trans fluid recently by doing the following (my van is a 95 3.0L 2WD):
Dropped the pan and changed the filter. Reinstalled the pan & refilled the trans.
Disconnected the top trans cooler connection at the rad. Bumped the engine over to check that the fluid came out of the tube, not the cooler (I cranked too long and made a big mess).
Pushed a piece of 3/8 ID clear tube (tight) over the disconnected cooler line. Ran the tube to an empty semi-transparent jug on the ground, positioned so I could see it from the driver's door.
Started the van & let the trans pump itself out. Shut the engine off immediately when the trans fluid stopped flowing - this happened before the gallon jug was full.
Added a gallon of new fluid to the trans through the dipstick tube & put an empty jug on the pump-out tube.
Started the engine again. Ran the trans through the gears to try to make sure the valve body & servos got flushed, too.
Reconnected the cooler line, filled the trans back up to the proper level & tried to clean up the mess I made.

By the time the trans pumped out the second time, the fluid coming out looked almost new. I would have done it once more, but I didn't have enough new fluid to repeat the process and fill the trans back up.

In total, I used about three gallons of fluid. I wish I'd had a fourth gallon.

Good luck.

Cheers,
Eric

 

One way is to build your own flushing gadget, which I did from two old clean 5-gallon paint cans, a pump and hoses from Home Depot. The other way is to drop the pan, fill it up, drive a few miles and repeat the process a few times. That's the only easy way I know short of pulling the transmission, removing the torque converter and pumping out the fluid. By the way, put in a good auxiliary transmission cooler, the one that came with my Aerostar is totally worthless, and the fluid kept getting burned until I put a cooler in. 150,000 miles and still going strong on the original transmission, thanks to that cooler. Happy motoring.

 

Thanks for all the info guys, it helps me out alot.

 

Don't mean to bring an old thread back from the dead, but is this the Ford-recommended way of exchanging the fluid?

Also, looks like it would be wise of me to invest in a 5 gallon pail of ATF then.

 

It's probably not a factory Ford approved method, but it's one of the best. Most dealers now will NOT change a transmission filter when doing a fluid exchange. They should, but there are just too many chances that their techs will cause more problems, or the customer will blame an already bad transmission on the dealership.
A 5 gallon pail of ATF is way too much. 2 gallon is probably overkill.

 

Alright, good to keep in mind, because what I'm pouring in costs a small fortune.

 

If you just change the 3 or 4 quarts that come out by draining through the cooling lines, then 1 gallon should be enough. If you want to do it more thoroughly, then 3 gallons will be needed to repeat the process at least twice.

I've dropped my transmission a couple times in the past few years, and I've done a full change each time. The full capacity is about 10 quarts, so you will need at least 2.5 gallons to do just that.

 

who invited this kid?

We have a bookmarked sticky at the top of the forum that lists common procedures on Aerostar, including how to properly "flush" your transmission.

Only take it to a pro and hook up a flush machine if you want to guarantee transmission failure, those machines destroy automatic transmission, even relatively low mileage ones. They pump fluid though passages and valve bodies at pressures the trans was never meant to see, and in ways it was not designed to handle. This ruins the seals, disturbs deposits, etc. This is why it is common for people to have total transmission failure shortly after having a transmission flush, even if they had no preexisting issues.

The proper method, mentioned in the earlier posts, is properly know as a dynamic fluid exchange, and it operates quite differently from a flush machine, and you can do it yourself, and really good transmission shops use the same method (a good transmission shop will not own a flush machine).

You still need to drop the pan and replace the filter prior to preceding with the fluid exchange.

If you replace your trans fluid often enough, at say 30,000 mile intervals, you won't need to worry about the contents of the torque converter. The amount that gets left behind is fine because the fluid will be kept in a fresh enough state by what gets replaced every time you drop the pan. You only need to do a dynamic if the fluid in the trans is already very old.

 

Just an FYI here, this is what I meant in my post. I guess there seems to be a couple of subjects going on at the same time in this thread and there is no way I would recommend one of the pressure machines that pushes fluid back into the tranny. I personally don't recommend one of these machines and as mentioned, a good tranny shop won't own one. Not always needed, because usually it's just a fine screen, but I always change the filter whenever changing ATF on my own vehicles.

 

old old thread.

good point on the tranny pan filter.
gotta know the type you have in there

if it's the screen type which most are now, just a filter change every 50k or so since the screen is just there to keep large tranny failure chunks from eating up the remaining good parts and plugging up everything else. often saves a tranny so it's still rebuildable after a failure. lots of honest tranny shops won't touch a grenaded tranny thats filled itself with grindings.

my old ATF on a flush change is very clean and I have a screen type filter in it so haven't changed the screen in 100k and comfortable with that since the tranny shifts like new and no problems at all.

still some old style filter media pad type tranny pan filters out there. those HAVE TO BE CHANGED every 20>30k miles or they plug and the tranny dies from lack of lube. re

remember the filter is on the suction side of the pump.
filter plugged, pump no suckie