byrdman454

Working on this '85 for my nephew. The car has 56,xxx original miles, and has been stored since '92 with only occasional starts and drives down a gravel road to keep things going (most likely less than 15 MPH). When we picked up the car, it drove fine (on the gravel road), had all it's gears, etc. The car has not been licensed at all and the TB was also from '92, so I could not drive it on the highway. I went to change the filter/fluid today and saw some small signs of metal in the bottom of the pan. I went ahead and cut the filter open, and there is quite a bit of sludge and metal piled up in the corners of the filter.

3 options:
Is there anything I can test on the trans while I have the pan off to determine it's health?

Should I just go ahead and throw a new filter and oil in and see what I have at highway speeds?

Should I throw in the towel now and prepare for a rebuild?

BTW, this is for a '85. It is not is my sig...

heinrich

I have an 84 or so 4-speed trans you can have free if you ship.

Mrmerlin

pictures of the metal would be good , I woud consider draining the TC and replacing the filter and fluid, see what happens, the trans might have been thrown into park while still rolling this might have damaged the locking pawl, or its mount

byrdman454

H, thanks for the offer, but I have an extra 4sp from a '88 I keep tripping over...

Mrmerlin, here are some pics. Even with pics, it is still hard to see. There is metal in there since my magnet is picking it up. The filter was not aftermarket, but was a Mercedes filter, so it might be the original.

I think I am going to go ahead and change the filter, add some cheaper non-synthetic ATF and see how it goes. If it holds up a couple thousand miles, I will pull the fluid and filter again and see what it looks like.

Mrmerlin

make sure to drain out as much fluid as you can, that includes draing the ntorque converter there is a drain plug that will line up with the metal grate ,
try to flush out the cooler lines as well.
Use Valvoline hi mileage ATF buy 2 1 gal bottles and 2 qt bottles, the bottles are red

Landseer

That's a lot of gunk.

You know that the torque convertor and case are more narrow in the 85 car than the 88, right?

88 will fit, but just barely and you will need the 88 TC.

Customization of bowden cable will be one required mod.

byrdman454

Mrmerlin, thanks for the info. I did drain the TC overnight and let the trans drip all day as well. It is as clear as possible. I will pick up the ATF you recommended.

Chris, I remember your excellent posts about putting a later 4sp in the older cars. The '88 also needs a refresh, so I was just hoping to rebuild the '85, but if any gears or hard parts were fragged, use the '88 as a donor. Thanks.

evozine

Heinrich,

To bad your free trans is two states away from me. I still have a bad 84 auto trans in the car, and one spare used 84 auto trans in the garage, but I think I could use one more just to be safe..

Al, your old colleague from Windows95..,