Circular depression + no drain plug = '64 and later pan. The drain plug was deleted for '64. You'll see the small angled flat area at the rear of the pan where the drain plug would be if there were one.

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一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

Ok I plan on being more awake from now on when I post, woke up in the middle of the night and realized "pre63" was before 63.
;-( DA

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Psychics will soon lead dogs to your body!

1963 Dodge Dart 270 convertible

Just to add my 1/50th of a buck...
When I rebuilt my /6, I drained and dropped the tranny first and filled it with fresh, new fluid upon re-installing it. About a year later the tranny went out. The transDr said it was probably because the newer fluid had a higher detergent content that loosened up some crud which then blocked a passage and let the bands burn up.
For what it's worth, ain't no tellin' really.

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aed
/6>V8

Thanks all... Looks to be a mixed bag here.

To recap replacing the filter and adjusting the bands and some seals require dumping a good bit of the fluid when removing the pan thus requiring a replacement of a goodly quantity of fluid which may compromise the integrity of the tranny.

To be clear I am having no problems with shifting, it shifts wonderfully and I am very pleased. I just hate the little reddish spots on the garage floor so replacing seals seems to be the fix and playing it by ear.

Cheers.
John

_________________
Psychics will soon lead dogs to your body!

1963 Dodge Dart 270 convertible

Replacing the fluid will not kill a transmission in good condition. There are very few good excuses for not doing routine maintenance on a transmission, and this just isn't one of them.

Radle D. Klunk: A variation on the Legend of Transmission Fluid Replacement explanation your mechanic gave you is "New transmission fluid with its high detergency flushed away built-up sludge, thus causing internal leaks". Aside from there being little or no basis for the "new fluid has higher detergency" trope, if built-up sludge is all that's letting internal seals do their job, the transmission is a dead man walking.

Did new fluid loosen crud which then blocked a passage and let the bands burn up? It's theoretically possible, but it's not very likely given the path transmission fluid takes through the Torqueflite transmission and its external cooler. Much more likely, if this general kind of thing were to happen, would be crud lodging in the governor and preventing upshifts out of first gear.

But before we place too much weight behind this guess at what happened, I'm curious: How many miles were on the transmission that failed a year(!) after you replaced the fluid? Consider: I put a new set of shoelaces and inserts in a pair of 2-year-old shoes. Really spiffed 'em up. But less than three months later, the soles wore through! Would you agree with me that it is not reasonable to say the new laces and inserts caused the sole failure…?

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一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

Yeah but Dan, did you have a window open when relacing those shoes?

And, did you know that everybody in any grave yard below grade once ate carrots. So steer clear of carots…

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67' Dart GT Convertible; the old Chrysler Corp.
82' LeBaron Convertible; the new Chrysler Corp
07' 300 C AWD; Now by Fiat, the old new Chrysler LLC

Yeah, and what if frogs had teeth and claws and lived in toilets?

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一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

No more of those late night movies for you Dan.

Disturbing a bunch of junk in the transmission can certainly lead to failure, but a big pothole, or a hard manual shift is more likely to cause failure than a fluid and filter change.

Even worse, a missadjusted Throttle Valve! That'll kill a TorqueFlite quicker than any other bit of maintenance or lack thereof I can think of. Even running low on fluid won't wreak the havok of having the TV set up incorrectly, stock power or otherwise.

2¢

CJ

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Part of Tyrde-Browne Racing

Dan: We would save a lot of trees, and Mr. Wiffel would be kissing frogs...


Yikes.

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67' Dart GT Convertible; the old Chrysler Corp.
82' LeBaron Convertible; the new Chrysler Corp
07' 300 C AWD; Now by Fiat, the old new Chrysler LLC

Couple of questions have been raised that I am unclear on, can I get some elucidation?

Do I have to remove the pan to stick the frog and carrot into the tranny? Does it matter if the frog is alive or what kind of frog or carrot is used?

Can Mr. Wiffle perform the adjustment of the throttle valve? And is he even still alive?

Cheers!

_________________
Psychics will soon lead dogs to your body!

1963 Dodge Dart 270 convertible

Make up yer mind! Which way is it? I'm spozeda watch the TV or I'm not???

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一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

I’m sorry to report that Mr. Wiffel won’t be down for breakfast. So you will have to dig someone else up for a throttle valve adjustment.

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67' Dart GT Convertible; the old Chrysler Corp.
82' LeBaron Convertible; the new Chrysler Corp
07' 300 C AWD; Now by Fiat, the old new Chrysler LLC

SlantSixDan, aside from your shoelace analogy you are dead on the money. The poor thing had not been cared for and that was most certainly the cause of the failure. The theory is, the supposedly cleaner fluid precipitated it. It had probably 150k on it when I got it, and there's no telling what had gone into it. It may have been a dead man walking, but it *was* still walking.
...and just for fun; I suppose it's possible that new laces might cause stress to transfer to the soles and cause them to let go, maybe. lol

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aed
/6>V8