I was planning on changing the trans fluid/filter in the interceptor tomorrow and had read previously somewhere you could detach the "in" line to the trans cooler, start the car, and cycle through the gears to pump the entire system dry of ATF - just shut the car off as soon as the flow lessens or it spits a bit.

Read a friends Hayne's manual and it just suggests dropping the pan, swapping the filter/gasket, and replacing the 4-5 qts you drained that way.

Seeing as there's 12 qts in there total I like my method a bit more - I'm not going to cause the trans any harm by draining it this way am I? Just want to make sure before I start...

Thanks

 

I would not suggest it...
Running a tranny with little to no fluid = a no-no in my book.

Come to Harbor Freight and buy a Transmission Fluid Exchanger.

 

Dont Do It

 

I wouldnt put in gear, it pumps fluid while in park. you can do it that way. A lot of fords do have a drain plug on the torque converter. Doing the filter/draining the pan, then draining the converter pretty much gets rid of all the fluid in the tranny

just look for a rubber plug on the trans bell housing, pull it out, then rotate the crank till you a plug, its like an 11mm. most of them have this, not all

 

I wouldn't do it man!! Not a good plan, it will work but it will also heat shit up and may damage it.

 

The Penzoil oil change place near me here in Brandon has a machine that will do this. I had it done on my moms GT and my Crown Vic a few years ago. Worked great. Cost like $50 or something. My guess is all Penzoil lube places have them.

 

That sounds like the old school way we used to it in the 60's...except you don't run it dry, you stick the "in" line in a supply of new ATF and the "out" line into a sufficiently large empty container. You run it until it starts pumping nice clean red fluid from the "out" line. Pretty much not worth the effort and the wasted extra ATF if you ask me.

 

+1. beat me to it.

 

Thanks for the advice - looking back it really would not have been worth it. Got about 10.5 of the 12 qts out just draining the converter and dropping the pan. Swap made a world of difference in how the car shifts however - much quicker and smoother...