Snoopdogie187

Hi,
I'm going to be changing the transmission fluid and filter (and putting in a new radiator and thermostst) tomorrow. It is a 93 chrsyler lebaron convertible V6 with the 4 speed transmission.
I'm fine with everything except how tight the bolts on the pan for the transmission should be.
Besides that's, I know I should go in a certain pattern for the bolts on the pan when I'm tighting it up. Besides just doing it across from each one, is there any certain way it should be done?

Well I guess one last thing, I spent a lot of time trying to look this up, and I never came up with a definet answer. I think this transmission is completely computer controlled and someone said that the bands couldn't be adjusted. So now I'm wondering besides the filter and fresh atf fluid, do I need to do anything else for it?

Don't have any problems with the transmission, I just notice the fluid was getting darker. Doesn't have a burnt smell and does just look like a darker red, no brown. This might also be due to the radiator. It has a nice whole in it (as we recently found out) that the previous owner "fixed" with j b weld or something. So I don't know if that caused excess heat in the transmission at all. it does fine on the highway, doesn't switch gears unless you really change speeds.

So just in general anything else I should watch out for?
Thank you

pat mcgroin

To save you a mess here is how I do it.

To remove the pan loosen all of the bolts slightly. Then at a corner of the panbegin to loosen 5 or 6 bolts so that the corner of the pan begins to fall. By doing this the fluid will start running out at that corner and be much easier to get into the drain pan. Keep loosening the pan bolts so the pan is basically hanging from the bolts opposite the drain pan to get as much out as possible. Then press the pan up with your hand and remove the rest of the bolts. Be careful when lowering the pan as there is still a lot of fluid in it and makes a hell of a mess if dropped. Especially if you accidently drop it in the drain pan.

For replacing the pan get everything lined up and all of the bolts ran up finger tight.
Start to tighten the bolts from the middle of the pan and work out towards the corners.
This will allow the gasket to smooth it self out towards the corner and not create a bubble in the middle as would happen if done from out to in.
The amonut of torque should be around 15 foot pounds or hand tight. Not extremely tight.
If you are using a ratchet and have a strong wrist one hand should do it. DO NOT break the bolt.

As for the bands there is pretty much nothing that can be done from the outside of a trans. anymore. Yours may still have a vacumn modulator on the outside, Im not sure I havent looked it up. If it does it may be a good time to change it while you are under there as 93 is getting up there. Its easy to do.

Other than that its pretty easy but can be very messy. If you are doing it it the drive or garage and have a large sheet of plastic that you can lay down it would probably be a good thing and have lots of rags.

Good luck and one thing I almost forgot to mention. After you refill it it is possible that it wont go into gear right away. This is normal. Just let it run in order to pump fluid back to every where that it has to be and then keep an eye on the level for a couple of days.

Snoopdogie187

Thank you. So far just got the new radiator in, so going to drain the trans fluid and do that part tomorrow.
It looks like the car never had the thermostat replaced before or not in a long time. The gasket just feel apart, so that took awhile to get it nice again.

As far as the trans, its the A604. I don't think it has any vacumn lines or control units that way. It does hava a Transmission Control Solenoid. Just for people who may come across this, the Transmission Control Solenoid seems to have a high tendency to get clogged (probably extremly important to take care of the transmission fluid in this car).

This soleniod is actually $180 but it is in a fairly easy spot to get so I would just wait to change it for now. I must say, to do any of the sensors on this transmission is easy (all of them are right in the front and you can get them from below, I guess when they designed it they were trying to make a very easy, nice driving trans).

Thank you for your advice and for the note on it possibly taking some time to get into gear. This is something that would get me a little nervious since I didn't know what to expect.

Snoopdogie187

The actual process was easy. It is up and running now. It seems all good. What I had planned went fast, very simple.
I'm glad I did all of this, it was a pain to get done but we got lucky. The bolts holding the transmission pan on were just slightly more than hand tight. That in itself was scary being I was going on the highway a lot with it and the pan could have probably found its way off. The other worse part, who ever put the pan on the last time, stripped one of the holes for the bolt on the housing of the transmission. In the end we drilled it out and put a bolt and nut on it.
After that the transmission went into limp mode, on these transmissions it will force it to stay in second gear, which is good and bad. I guess because the time it took to build up pressur, it set off a code. I disconected the battery and left it for 10 mins (little longer than needed but it worked still).
Now it drives pretty much how it was, and I have a safer feeling about it now that I know more about what as goin on in that transmission.

The only other thing that wasn't right was there was straches in the pan. I'm guessing this was why the transmission was apart before. We put at least 1000 miles on it from when we got it. The magnet has some sludge and a little metal on, but nothing big and really not a lot.

Driving it easy at first, then harder than normal, all seemeed and sounded good.

Thank you for your help.