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I just did some routine maintenance on the transmission of my manual 85, replaced gear oil and ATF fluid, I’ve done it before with no problems. I went for a ride parked it and went out of town, I came back to a huge puddle of what seems to be very dirty ATF underneath the car. Gear oil is full. I pulled the overdrive pan down and found a lot of very dirty fluid, and a huge amount of metal on the magnet… is my transmission screwed? The OD has always worked but the “overdrive engaged” light stopped coming up on the screen a few months ago, I didn’t think much of it and figured it was a faulty bulb.
I’d you dropped the pan and changed ATF then only drove a short period then by the looks of what’s in your pan I would say you have major transmission problems. That’s a lot of metal adhered to the pan magnet and that trans fluid looks like motor oil it’s so contaminated.
I just changed the fluid out on my 84 4+3 and it was still red after probably 10k miles.
I’d you dropped the pan and changed ATF then only drove a short period then by the looks of what’s in your pan I would say you have major transmission problems. That’s a lot of metal adhered to the pan magnet and that trans fluid looks like motor oil it’s so contaminated.
I just changed the fluid out on my 84 4+3 and it was still red after probably 10k miles.
that’s what I was afraid of😔 yeah maybe a 30 minute drive… Well, I have been considering doing a zf6 swap so I guess this is my sign to do it. Will be the biggest job I’ve done but found an in depth YouTube on it
How many miles was since you did the service, When I did the service on the OD we would disconnect the cooler lines push out the nasty stuff from the cooler. Then push fresh until until clean assemble and fill.
I’d you dropped the pan and changed ATF then only drove a short period then by the looks of what’s in your pan I would say you have major transmission problems. That’s a lot of metal adhered to the pan magnet and that trans fluid looks like motor oil it’s so contaminated.
I just changed the fluid out on my 84 4+3 and it was still red after probably 10k miles.
Upon closer inspection the gear oil looks clean still, so I think the problem is isolated. That being said, can I continue to drive with the overdrive turned off without causing more damage? At least until I swap the trans
How many miles was since you did the service, When I did the service on the OD we would disconnect the cooler lines push out the nasty stuff from the cooler. Then push fresh until until clean assemble and fill.
I did a full service maybe 2k miles ago or less, cleaned filter, new gasket, etc. this time around I just replaced the fluid since I already had it up off the ground, then drove it to dinner and back, haven’t driven it since.
I did a full service maybe 2k miles ago or less, cleaned filter, new gasket, etc. this time around I just replaced the fluid since I already had it up off the ground, then drove it to dinner and back, haven’t driven it since.
That's nasty looking I'm sure 2000 miles ago that Magnet was clean, the ATF goes dark quickly especially if cooler wasn't flushed but the filings is concerning
clutch material. swap the fluid then do it again in a few hundred miles. Then in another 5000 moles to see how its doing.
every 4+3 ive bought looks like that. the 2 buggest self sabatoged things gm did in these cars was a lack of a drain plug on a 4+3 pan, and, covering up the clutch master on the 90+ cars with the ecm.
Both of those things lead to regular maintenance/fluid change neglect and both affected the transmissions leading to OD failure in the early cars and 2nd gear syncro failure in the zf6 cars.
Huge OD leak
