I've heard this part needs replacement something like every year, but mine has never been replaced I"m betting, and I believe my fluid is the original fluid. I've heard changing fluid on a tranny that's never been changed can be bad, so... is it a good idea to change the fluid, and how/where do I change the transmission filter?

Though I'm not particualarly attached to the three speed automatic tranny I guess I'd rather it not blow up on me...

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My car may be slow to sixty, but at least it's been reliably slow to sixty for more than thirty years.

The "Don't change the fluid if it's never been changed!" thing is one of those myths that refuses to die, passed down from dad to son to dad to son. Kind of like "Always warm up your car for 10 minutes in the driveway!" and "Always rev the engine a few times before you shut it down!".

The external in-line trans filter used on '62-'63 cars as standard equipment (optional and accessory on '60-'61) is a 24,000-mile item to coincide with the fluid change interval. The in-pan filter that was introduced for '64 has a longer service life (sometimes called a "lifetime" filter -- this is not quite true.) 5 years or 50k miles is a good fluid change interval if you're using the '64-up in-pan filter. There are two bands that need adjusting, too.