Fluid Drive

[48mirage]

Knowing the old Coronet hadn't seen a lot of maintenance in the last couple of decades I thought I might drain the fluid drive and refill. Crawled underneath and scraped at 50+ years of crud until I had the housing pretty well cleaned up. Where I expected to see a bolt for a cover plate I did find a hole (most likey a drain hole) and no identifiable cover plate. The housing vent looked like maybe it would come off and that would give me access to the plug. No luck, no bolts. Upon close examination it appears that the vent cover is spot welded to the fluid coupling housing.

Now, I might be able to access the plug through the vent opening but that could be a little messy and doesn't fully drain the coupling. I could roll the coupling on down to the drain hole after plug removal, but I'm afraid with all that fluid at once I'm looking at overwhelming the drain and the excess migrating to the clutch disc and contaminating it.

Anybody got any ideas.

[DonaldSmith]

Just going from the manual and my distant recollections from previous posts, the drain hole in the converter is accessed from the removable floor panel on the right side of the hump.

Line up the plug with the hole, and remove the plug. Be careful not to drop the plug. Rotate the converter so the hole is on the bottom, and the fluid should drain out. To refilll, rotate again so the hole is at the removable panel. Fill the converter so the fluid gets to the level of the hole. Reinstall plug.

Maybe someone who has been through it can chime in with some valuable experiences.

[PatS....]

On the top left of this pic of my rusty floor, you see an oval plate on the side of the transmission hump. That is the hole you open to check and add fluid.

The other larger plate allows access to the solenoid, interuptor switch and governor on the side of the transmission. (if it's an M6)

[Merle Coggins]

Not sure how the cars are setup, but on my truck setup, the bottom of the bellhousing has a cover that comes off to access the clutch and fluid drive. This cover is held to the bell housing with about 8 bolts around the perimiter. With this cover off, rotate the engine until the drain/fill plug on the fluid drive is at the bottom. Place a drain pan below it and remove the plug. It won't gush out unless it is hot and under pressure. Once it is fully drained, rotate the engine to line the fill hole up with the access cover in the bell housing. On mine it is at aroung one o-clock on the right upper side of the bell housing. There's probably an access hole/plate in your floorboard to get to it. You'll need a long funnel with a small end to get down into the fluid drive fill hole, and it'll fill kind of slow, but keep adding oil until it wont take anymore without running out. The next trick is getting the plug back in without dropping it. A magnetic socket is a help.

Good luck

Merle

[PatS....]

The cars have a two piece bellhousing as well. Bottom left is the upper part of the bellhousing and lower right is the cover plate that goes on the bottom (shown upside down)

This pic shows the ROUND fill hole on the side of the bellhousing for the fluid coupling.

[bob_amos]

If you want to drain the entire amount of fluid Donald was dead on. We just completed this very task in the shop last month on a '53 Chrysler with the M6 tranny. Refilling took quite some time as the air trapped within will need to migrate out as the new fluid is installed. Just take your time and be sure it is completely full. Don't find yourself saying the "this is enough, it'll work." Because it won't. It will need to be full.