Hi everyone. My th350 lost 3rd gear, and reverse chatters a bit. Dropped the pan, and there was a lot of friction material and metallic sludge in the pan, so it was evident that I lost 3rd gear clutches. To see what would happen, I cleaned out the pan, installed a new filter, and drove it around some more. 3rd gear came back temporarily at slower speed, but once I got up to a higher speed, it let go again. But I was able to drive back home in 2nd gear. Other than losing 3rd gear it ran fine. So, I know I have to rebuild. I have Cliff's book, but I didn't see my concern addressed in the book. My concern is that some of this material got into the torque converter and the trans cooler in the radiator. I read somewhere else that before I remove the transmission, I could flush the converter and cooler by disconnecting the return cooler line at the radiator and attach a hose at the cooler outlet to go into a bucket, and starting the car and flush the fluid into the bucket until the fluid is clean, adding new fluid as necessary. Would that be sufficient to clean out the system to prevent contamination of the rebuilt transmission after re-installation? Or should I do something else? Thanks
