<VV> Powerglide w/ gray fluid and metal chips in the pan

[George Jones]

Mike,

check the differential fluid. If it's over full and has a reddish cast, you
will know where the tranny fluid has gone. Looks like you should plan on a
rebuild soon, with that much debris, it probably won't last long. The
question now is if you need to replace the tranny and diff, or just the
tranny.


On 7/5/07, Mike Shank <mike.shank at juno.com> wrote:
>
> Problem:  When I dropped the pan on my Powerglide, I found a substantial
> pile of metal filings in it, directly under the filter screen.  Most of
> the chips are about the size and thickness of the "dried oregano" you get
> in a shaker container from the grocery store, but a few of them are ~3/8"
> long and extremely thin - wire like but rough and jagged - maybe the dia.
> of button thread.  I'd say there were around 2 tablespoons of chips in a
> nice neat rectangular pile in the pan.  I scooped some of the stuff onto
> a paper towel, let it drain overnight, and passed a magnet over it - some
> of it is ferrous, and some is aluminum - it sort of stuck to the magnet
> in clumps (still has some ATF holding it together) but  when I pulled a
> clump off the magnet and smeared it over my finger, only some of the
> chips would jump back to the magnet - lots of shiny little alum. chips
> left on my finger.
>
> So far I've drained the fluid, let it sit for nearly a week to drain the
> torque converter as much as possible (definitely saw a level increase in
> the drain pan), sprayed the screen w/ brake cleaner to wash out any
> remaining residue, cleaned the gasket surfaces and bought a new gasket.
> It does appear that the trans pan has been off before - seemed to be some
> sort of silicone-type sealer on the gasket.
>
> Background:  I bought the car, a '64 4-door, ~ 2-1/2 yrs ago w/ 94000 mi
> - drive it regularly - put ~ 7000 mi on it since then.  I dont have a lot
> of history on it, but from what I can tell it had been in storage for a
> while.  After purchase, I drained and refilled and checked &/or replaced
> the usual things, but the ATF was nice and clean and red, so I left it
> alone.
>
> Symptoms:  I started the car (engine cold) drove it around the block to
> our alley, when I stopped in front of my garage - idling in Drive - I
> thought I heard an unusual, albeit faint, grinding noise.  I shifted into
> Reverse and heard the same noise.  I backed into the garage and could no
> longer hear the noise in D or R.  on a hunch, I checked the fluid level
> and it was down (took about 1-1/2 pints to bring it to FULL), but the
> real shocker was the dark GRAY fluid - no detectable red color whatsoever
> - no brown, no burned smell, just gray - probably a lot of super-fine
> powdered filings in suspension.  I cant say for sure, but I probably last
> checked it ~ 5 months ago (less than 1500 mi) and it was still fine then.
> As for the "grinding" noise, the windows have been down for most of the
> last several months and I'd consider myself to be pretty well tuned in to
> unusual mechanical sounds.  The only shifting problem that I've ever
> noticed w/ this trans is that it seems to downshift late when coming to a
> stop.  The only time that becomes really apparent is when braking lightly
> while stopping on a wet street - often the front wheels would skid (back
> wheels were still being driven).  If I manually shifted into Neutral, it
> would stop normally - which I got in the habit of doing on wet stops (why
> fix a problem if you can ignore it? ;-).  Other than that, the
> transmission has always worked fine for me, no banging, no slipping, no
> problems.
>
> The only thing that was at all out of the ordinary recently (I forgot all
> about this until now), was maybe a week before I noticed the trans
> problem, while running pretty hard on the highway, the GEN light came on
> - I immediately shut off the ignition suspecting a jumped belt - coasted
> to the next exit ramp and discovered that the belt was fine.  Restarted
> and double checked the belt - fine.  Back on the highway, ~ 2 miles later
> the light came on again - checked belt - still fine.  Decided it must be
> either wiring, or the generator itself.   Drove the remaining few miles
> home w/ no problems - went camping w/ the Cub Scouts for the weekend (in
> a different vehicle) and promptly forgot all about the GEN light problem
> till now!  Now that I think back, there were very few miles put on the
> car between the GEN light occurance and my noticing the trans problem,
> even though probably a week of time elapsed, the car was possibly not
> used at all.  (not sure how the GEN light could relate to the powerglide,
> but I'm just trying to give all the facts to you experts out there! :-).
>
> Question:  Regarding the Powerglide - would you:
> a) Reassemble, refill, drive close to home, and just keep an eye and ear
> on it?
> b) Disassemble further - if so, how far and what do I look for?
> c) Replace the entire trans &/or torque converter?
>
> Thanks in advance for any advice!
> -Mike Shank
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-- 
George Jones
--------------------------------
Tidewater Corvair Club (since 1987)
Central Virginia Corvair Club (since 2006)
Corviar Society of America (CORSA)(since 1987)
'65 Monza Crown V8 Convertible
http://www.cardomain.com/ride/2397326
'66 Monza Coupe Custom (in progress)