Some days...

John B.

I pulled the drain plug on the transmission tonight. I've never seen auto transmission fluid that looked like strawberry milk before, plus it stunk. Looks like I need to pick up a few more quarts to flush through the cooler lines after I refill from this. Straight nasty.

John B.

Nastysauce!!

Strawberry milkshake means there's water in your transmission fluid, and the transmission was circulating the water with the fluid in order for it to have mixed together. You're going to need to do several drain & fills in order to get it all out of there, or do a transmission flush to be sure.

Hopefully the moisture was just condensation from having been sitting for a long time, but you might want to check the breather to make sure it's still intact.

If you have a cooler tank inside the radiator it possible it has lost it's integrity and you might want to check that as water will still find it's way in no matter how many flushes.....

The radiator is sound. This stuff was inside the transmission. Fortunately, I have plenty of room to disconnect the line as it exits the second (final) cooler to be able to direct its output into a drain. That way I can keep pouring new fluid in through the dipstick tube and hopefully can flush much of it out. I realize it will probably take a few tries to get it clean, since there's bound to be some crud left in the valve bodies/internal passages/torque converter, but I'm determined to get it.

I adjusted the timing by ear the other day. Seems to run a bit better. Next, I'm going to drain the gas tank and put some fresh gas in it. I'll make the old riding lawn mower digest this stuff. It eats everything.

Looks like I'll be trying for exhaust completion this weekend.

John B.

John, do you need to borrow my timing light?

Ryan, I have a timing light. Just not sure which wire I need to ground to set it. LT was going to point it out, but I didn't remember to ask him to tag it before I left for work the morning he was over.

I drained the gas tank and put in a few fresh gallons. Truck starts immediately now but still has a miss, hopefully just timing related. I'll probably replace the plugs just for good measure. Ordered magnetic core plug wires, cap and rotor from Rock Auto for $15, shipped.

Oil changed out to synthetic with a NAPA gold filter.

It's getting real. Reinstated insurance Friday.

John B.

It's the brown round connector with a single wire in it, it may or may not have a cap on it.

Thanks, Dude.

Printed a 3 day temporary tag and stuck it in the back window. Look out...

John B.