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OK, ok.....I'm a 70 year old man and have done this a few hundred times but after working on replacing the tranny lines on my 442, I'm unsure! It's a turbo 400 BTW! I seem to be a little unsure more often at this age and just don't want to overfill this transmission. Below are two pictures of what I get upon removing the dipstick. I start it up and run it on the lift for maybe 15 minutes, I pull the dipstick and wipe it off, I get in the car and run through the gears and back to park, I get out of the car, put in the dipstick and pull it right back out and the dipstick looks like the photos below.
Dipstick front: Dipstick back The backside looks higher and the front looks like it's a pint low. What do you folks think?? Is it just not full enough to register or do this dipstick show different levels from the front to the back. I suspect that I don't have it full enough. The line has been leaking and I'm not quite sure just how much. I have already added over a quart to it.
I don't remember having this issue before and have a '76 Vette with a turbo 350 that I have no issues with (at least previously) LOL! Go easy on me......
I am not as experienced as many on here, but although you ran the car on the lift for 15-minutes, and then cycled the tranny throught the gear range, is the tranny fluid really at operating temp? Maybe you should actually drive it for 15-minutes so the tranny fluid can also warm up to operating temp like the motor. I have always been told to check the tranny fluid after driving the car, then parked and still running? Just my 2-cents.
Just had my 1971 Cutlass Turbo 350 rebuilt & had good advice from my shop. You're better off a little low than overfilled. I'd drive it a while to be sure it's up to operating temp too. Wipe the dipstick well also, before testing, engine running, in Park. Although a poor test, the trans will "slip" when taking off from a stop w/ a cold engine, if you're low.
I really don't want to drive it until I get the Dual Gate cable adjusted. After taking care of the tranny lines leakage, I was trying to get it full and then adjust the cable. Plus it's stripped down pretty good trying to get it read to paint. I'm at least a year behind where I wanted to be. I'm just not sure I have it close to full from the way the dipstick looks. LOL
The thing that really throws me off is the back looks like it has a fluid level but the front has some fluid at the "ADD 1 PINT" mark but below that mark the dipstick appears to be completely free of transmission fluid?
The dipstick in your first pic above shows add 1 pint. The second pic the back of the dipstick shows full. Take the difference between the 2 and you might need to add 1/2 a pint.
Don't overthink it. You can only pull the transmission fluid dipstick out once or twice to check the fluid level before the reading becomes inaccurate.
I thought that the weird readings might be from adding tranny fluid and residual fluid still running down the filler tube. I guess I'll add a bit more, pull the dipstick out and wipe clean, keep the engine running on the lift for about 30 minutes, run through the gear setting & then Park and then re-check it after it's had time to clear out the filler tube.
Seems that as I've gotten older, I've become the King of Over thinkers! I haven't painted a car in 20 years and you'd think I had never ever painted any! LOL! I set a goal to get it painted this year and it will look as good as it will look!
Last edited by OLE442; March 1st, 2023 at 04:58 AM.
Reason: added text
I thought that the weird readings might be from adding tranny fluid and residual fluid still running down the filler tube. I guess I'll add a bit more, pull the dipstick out and wipe clean, keep the engine running on the lift for about 30 minutes, run through the gear setting & then Park and then re-check it after it's had time to clear out the filler tube.
Seems that as I've gotten older, I've become the King of Over thinkers! I haven't painted a car in 20 years and you'd think I had never ever painted any! LOL! I set a goal to get it painted this year and it will look as good as it will look!
I work at a transmission shop and have 3 cars of my own when cold fire it up let it run and fill between ad and full when fluid becomes hot it should sit just a bit above the full mark been doing this for almost 40 years and never had a problem
I did what I said in post #8 after I added a 1/2 pint like Olds64 said in post #7! I had cleaned off the dipstick and set it on the cowl for the whole 30 minutes run time, went through the gears and back into Park and went around to the passenger side quickly and put the dipstick all the way down and pulled it out and there is only fluid on the very tip. The weird readings before were from fluid running down the inside of the tube when I was inserting the dipstick! I think the tranny was lower than I thought! See today's photos below:
There is no real amount of fluid above the "ADD 1 PT." mark on the dipstick. I think I need to add at least somewhere between a pint and a quart to the tranny. I'm thinking most likely another quart. I think this may be the best reading I've had!
I'll say that thing shifts like a beast! My brother said the original owner had a shift kit installed in it! Hope to get it done and terrorize the countryside someday cause my hourglass is running low on sand!
Yes, I got it where it needed to be. It took more fluid than I thought and is right at full! Thanks for all your comments! I just didn't want to overfill it! On to the next issue! LOL!
February 28th, 2023, 05:47 PM
