Think fill for life ATF is something new?

Status
Not open for further replies.
Joined
Nov 15, 2002
Messages
8,937
Location
SC
Think fill for life ATF is something new? Think again. Look at this page from the 1967 Chrysler Imperial owners manual:

 -
 
What I find interesting is that they say once you've changed the fluid, it then has to be changed every 36,000 miles thereafter. I suppose one way that could be interepreted is "We (Chrysler) know the quality of the fluid we put in at the factory, but we don't know what sort of crap you might put in there. So if you change it, we're going to be on the safe side and say you've got to keep changing it every 36,000 miles."
 
It's actually every 12k once you change it and it looks like the bands need adjusting too.

I like that battery, must be 100 lbs.
grin.gif
 
quote:

Originally posted by eljefino:
It's actually every 12k once you change it and it looks like the bands need adjusting too.

You're right. I was thinking about the wording in the 69 owners manual. It just says every 36,000 miles for "normal" use.

You'll also note that Chrysler had their own ATF specification which was listed in addition to Dexron: AQ-ATF-2848A or 2351A.

 -
 
Reminds me of this from LubeGard's website and their literature... (emphasis added)

"... Years ago, sperm whale oil and its deriatives were used as additives in virtually all automotive lubricants. The products were so effective that a car's transmission fluids were generally never changed, and the transmission lasted the life of the car. Some 30 million pounds of sperm whale oil were used every year; to supply the demand, hundreds of thousands of whales were slaughtered until the species was faced with extinction.

In 1972 the Endangered Species Act outlawed the killing of whales and the use of materials derived from whales. For years the automotive industry relied on other animal based products such as tallow or lard oil. These proved to be an inadequate substitue(sic), leading to poor overall drivetrain performance, premature drivetrain failure and transmission failure due to heat.
.... "
 
G-Man II, You and I could have had a blast together when I worked at Chrysler in Windsor, On. Canada in the '60's.
WAP (Windsor Assembly Plant) built everything from a Valiant 2dr to a Chrysler convert. The only things we didn't were 300's and Imps.
I started out in '64 on the gateline welding in the patch-plates just before the roofs came on. A patch-plate is the piece in the corners of the body behind the windshield where the sunvisors screwed into. I also welded the top of the centre post between the doors on a 4-door. We even built RHD vehicles for export to OZ and the UK. Valiants, Baracudas, Furys, Monacos, Chryslers...2 drs, 4drs, wagons, converts......198 slants to 440 six-packs. We built them all on the same assembly line and there was seldom 2 identical vehicles in line, they were totally at random. It was quite the place to be in '65 !!
I started as a pipefitter apprentice in the changeover of '65 and got to see the whole operation as a tradesman.
When I worked midnights as a fitter, one of the jobs was to do a walkthru at the administration building where the President's office was. I would go over about 2am and sit in Mr. Todgham's (the Pres) chair in his big oak trimmed office. For 10 mins I was Papa Bear, Pres. of the Chrysler Corp !! G-Man, I would have made you exec. vice-pres. for 10 mins, how would you have liked that.
All the cars at the plant had the keys in them and you could always take a Superbird or 340 Dart for a spin. We built the engines right across the driveway in Plant2 WMP (Windsor Motor Plant) or wimpy for short. There was always a hot test of 50 or so engines running at the same time. FYI...the engines were run with a plate on the oil filter mount that fed oil to the engine and no drain plug in the pan. The coolant also just ran down into a catch-pan under the engine where the oil drained. Oil & Coolant ran down into a trough and went to a centifuge where they were seperated and reused !!
That will have to conclude our plant tour for this evening.
cheers.gif

P.B. (that brought back some memories)
 
quote:

Think fill for life ATF is something new?

Nope. In fact before I bought a 90's Chrysler product ...I always considered the "standard fill" as a lifetime fill in every automatic that I've ever owned. They single handedly converted the entire industry with their, all too real, "Fear Factor".
mad.gif
 
quote:

Originally posted by Gary Allan:

quote:

Think fill for life ATF is something new?

Nope. In fact before I bought a 90's Chrysler product ...I always considered the "standard fill" as a lifetime fill in every automatic that I've ever owned. They single handedly converted the entire industry with their, all too real, "Fear Factor".
mad.gif


Really? Let's see...I had a 77 Mercedes and the manual recommended regular ATF changes. I had a 78 Oldsmobile and the manual recommended the ATF be changed every 60,000 miles. In fact, the first modern car I remember where the owners manual said the fluid didn't need to be changed under normal service was my mother's 87 Ford Taurus.
 
Euro stuff ...very scary in any year. BMW dealers didn't even rebuild their own JUNQUE ..installed an imported reman ..I would assume even more mystery from MG. 78 Olds..hmmm ..you were actually getting to the point where the original owner really had the same car from new ..so I'll buy that.

The only oddball that I DO see there is the 87 Taurus ..that's well into CAFE related trans configurations for senseless complications with no productive effect on function or value.

Go figure.

I do have to mention that I've had substantial gaps in my automatic transmission ownership. My 60's xxxxBoxes all never needed the least bit of fluid maintenance ..but I didn't own them from new. This included stuff like a 65 Dynamic 88 and a 65 Galaxy 500 sedan ..a Biscayne wagon with a Powerglide ..and so on. My first through 3rd new vehicles were sticks. 75 C20, 77 Chevette, 78 BMW. My next was a 78 C20 454 with TH400. The next auto that entered the family was my mother's Citation. In 220k the only thing that went bad on the trans was the bike chain (a wide bike chain). The thing was given away due to UV damage.

So ...when my Caravan SUCKERPUNCHED me ..I was shocked that a vehicle that had never been abused ..when I had FLOGGED earlier .and in most cases ..used (into the 100k range) autos gave me ZERO troubles with NO maintenance ....resulted in a lunched trans.

Devolution at its best.
 
Nothing scary about my Mercedes transmission. When I sold it it had over 275,000 miles on the clock and the only thing that had ever been done to it was regular fluid changes.
 
I'm currently on my 6th car, but the first ive ever owned with an automatic tranny. Perhaps it's a sign i'm getting old, but i do like it, especially when driving in traffic.

However, i've been perplexed as how to properly take care of it. So far i've been getting a "power flush" at the dealer every 25K which exceeds the mfg rec of 60K miles.

I wish i was brave enough to try to attempt the "home flush" method, but thus far i've decided it's easier to wait till the dealer is running a special for 89 or 99 bucks or something and get it done there. Once you factor in their cost for 16 or so quarts of semi-synthetic mercon-V 100 bucks is not unreasonable, is it?
 
The older MB automatics were a pretty faithful copy of the original GM Hydramatic, four forward gears and a fluid coupling, no torque converter. Those things were bulletproof.

Gary,

My transmission guy rates the Chrysler minivans as having the worst ones he has ever seen. As for the 80's Taurus, they have a normal transaxle "lifetime" of about 60,000 miles anyway.
 
I'll assume you had the traditional 4 speed auto with select gears on 2-4. I have not noted any mass instance of this trans having issues. My comment was that it was European and therefore inherently complex and requiring high maintenance (the vehicle - not necessarily singling out the trans)...and incredibly expensive to refresh if you didn't maintain it. They were, at least to a certain point, 25-30 year vehicles though. My older cousin owned two 60's MB. A 63 230SL and a 280SE convertable ..both ordered here and picked up in Germany at his 5 year international OB convention. At that time, the only V8 MB imported was the 600 ..the limo.
 
Most RWD automatics hold a lot of oil, if you can drain the converter and not just the pan. My Ford E4OD took 15 quarts to refill, including the converter, so a full flush would take at least that much.
 
quote:

Originally posted by Jimbo:
The older MB automatics were a pretty faithful copy of the original GM Hydramatic, four forward gears and a fluid coupling, no torque converter. Those things were bulletproof.

Gary,

My transmission guy rates the Chrysler minivans as having the worst ones he has ever seen. As for the 80's Taurus, they have a normal transaxle "lifetime" of about 60,000 miles anyway.


You are absolutely right about the Taurus automatics. I had a 91 model and the transmission gave out at 61,000 miles in 1999. I knew of the weakness in this transmission and the fact that the warranty had been extended to 5 years or 60,000 miles. I was doing yearly transmission fluid changes, but it still required a $1700 overhaul at 8 years and 61,000 miles.
 
Unfortunately the dealer machines are just recycling the same ATF fluid and adding new additives. Also they don't drop the pan so the filter eventually will clog stopping flow and causing the tranny to fail. So you pay around $100 to $149 to just flush the system and get back the same old oil. Beware of these machines. They just save the shop the time of dropping the pan. They love it but the owner gets cheated.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top