My AOD tranny has been buggin me for a long time now and two weeks ago I pulled out of the parking garage downtown and the tranny freewheeled a bit before I tapped the gas to spin some fluid in the converter so it would catch. Sure enough, it was low on fluid from the trans cooler hose connector leaking. It also had lost that pink tint and had started to go orangish. 150k on the odo and I decided a full flush was in order along with the switch to Mercon V. So the torque converter drain bolt was at bottom and the small rubber adapter hose to the tranny cooler made flushing the thing pretty simple. 12quarts Mercon V later I had managed to overfill it according to the dipstick. Funny thing is I think that dipstick has been lying to me for years. I drove it around with 12qts in it and the clutches applied like never before. The ocillating idle surge at startup disappeared also. I guess the converter no longer had to prime itself. The idle surge has been a mystery hunt ever since I owned this truck and my Dad said it had done it early on as well. If I had to guess, I would say I have about ¾ qt gilled past the top of the checkerboard on the dip stick. The tranny has never operated as good as it does now and I always had nightmares concerning ballooned converters and fried clutches as Dad had a gooseneck on it a few times. It has left the farm and now ages gracefully on the busy streets of Houston. I will see if MPG increases from 17.5 Oh yes, Mobil 1 - 10W/30 is on sale at Costco for $26 a case of 6qts

 

flushing doesnt typically help....

if it did for you, you got really lucky..

normally it breaks stuff lose and gums up everything else...

 

Interesting.. I have also seen improved behaviour from the AOD with a slight fluid overfill.

 

I read a post on the AOD somewhere and the writer was explaining that the dipsticks did not allways indicate total capacity correctly. After the flush, I know that there is just slightly less than 12qts in that tranny and this is the way I will fill it in the future. When I put 11qts in it the fluid registered just below the first hole at the bottom of the stick. The 12th quart put the fluid over the top of the crosshatch by an equal amount. I agree it is strange, but I'm not messing with what is working and working better than it ever has.