<VV> Black ATF

[Chris & Bill Strickland]

>Other than just breaking the trans, anything else to worry about?  
>
Okay, I'll sucker itno this one --

There would be two schools of thought here -- 1) it's already broken, or 
2) you can't break a Corvair powerglide with Corvair power.

Black, stinking ATF (you always judge the fluid by smell -- if it smells 
burnt, it is burnt, probably why it is black) is never a "good" sign. 
Means you should pull the pan and inspect for friction material debris.  
Lots of pieces of what look like ironed flat cornflakes is not good.  
Or, maybe the fluid got burnt because of overloaded operation (does the 
car have a trailer hitch?), or plugged or damaged cooling fins on the 
converter, or remotely possible (maybe - can this even be done?) running 
an auto with a stick trans bell housing or some backwoods type welded up 
the holes in a 'Glde bell housing?  Hard to say when you don't know what 
happened.

Now I have seen modern high torque Ford diesel pickups that get driven 
hard actually blow an automatic transmission up, broken case and all, 
and that, my friend, is a "broken" transmission -- Corvair Powerglides 
rarely break, but internal parts can wear out meaning they need to be 
serviced.  Your Black ATF is also worn out, yes, the fluid can and does 
"wear out", and maybe you just need a fluid change, commonly reffered to 
as "servicing the transmission", but can be done by drainig it out by 
unscrewing the dipstick tube nut, and replacing the lost fluid -- this 
will not drain the burnt fluid in the converter, so it needs to be run 
just a bit and then repeated.  Repeat until the fluid is "pretty".

If the tranny works, it isn't broken, yet.  Some new fluid would 
probably be a good step in getting it to run another 200 miles, but I 
wouldn't drive it anywhere where it was too far to walk to the next 
shelter without having any personal experience with the vehicle.  ie, 
carry food and water and blankets and a communication device.

Godspeed!

Bill Strickland