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The obvious issue is that when the motor is stopped, some of the fluid from convertor starts to drain back into the pan, and this raises the level, which can give you a false level.

That's exactly the point. So we agree on the fact that running the engine and keeping the fluid in motion when checking the level is a good idea?

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A great deal of drain-back to the converter would be rather unusual, I think. I would say having fluid going through the trans circuit themselves is more likely the reason for running the engine while checking (which is I believe almost universally the correct way to check automatic fluid levels).

My '07 Cherokee Hemi has the unusual feature, pointed out in the manual, of draining most of the fluid out of the converter whenever the engine is shut off. They warn that at times on startup there may be a lag after engaging the trans, as the convertor has not filled yet! Checking procedure is the same--engine running.

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Just a note on a similar situation when my dad "put his foot down" on the dimmer switch of his severely rusted out '60 Falcon, and the switch dropped through the floor and went tinkle tinkle down the pavement... he then put his foot down for real and finally parked the car.

i have always been taught....get it to operating temp....run it through the gears several times...put it in neutral...leave it running and check the level.

my truck was the same way filling it with trans fluid the first time...took awhile for the converter to fill with fluid and it was a bit weird at first, but it smoothed out.

sounds like your dad about had a flintstone's car. LOL!

Thanks for your reactions on this subject, guys.

What could have been the reason that Packard wants you to shut the engine off before checking the level (in a hurry because you have do to it within one minute)? Checking and topping it up with the engine running is so much easier and as you mention the common procedure.

????

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Possibly because prior to the Gearstart transmission, you had to physically crawl under the car to check the level. Not a real good idea with the engine running.

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Well, just don't let Kev hear you say that about his Clipper.

I've said before, early drivers were made of sterner stuff. Just think, you could lift up a real "floor" board in some cars and watch the road go by, have gasoline a foot or so in front of you in cars where the cowl was part of the gas tank, actually sit inches above an engine only covered with wood and hope nothing caught fire in real early cars, have ordinary plate glass keeping the wind or anything else out of your face, and any number of other exciting little things no one gave any thought about before NTSB and the like came along..

... all while you motored along at 35 mph!

I get your point, though. Today's "cocoon" cars are nice for a while, but bo-ring.

Well instead of armchair mechanicing.... I decided to get back to work of the Clipper. After all, turning wrenches and getting the cars back on the road is the purpose of the website.

So while I have been putting off this task, I can do so no longer. So join me as I fumble my way through replacing the floor pans in the Clipper.

First is a picture of the passenger side floor pan.

I used a sharpie and drew a line around the floor to give me a guide line for cutting. While the replacement pans extend up the toe boards, I am electing to remove only the bad area and leave as much of the good original floor as possible. Also I didn't want to be welding right up again the firewall insulator pad.

There are some rust that extends into area where the replacement pans are not wide enough. I will fix those with sheet metal formed to shape.

The old floor was then cut out with a shielded high-speed cutting wheel (use a face shield folks). When cutting out the floors you have to be aware of the underfloor braces. Also I discovered up on the toe-board, it is made of two pieces of sheet metal which are both flanged and welded together to form another underfoot brace. The replacement floor pan is one piece of metal and does not have that brace. So I cut the floor out in a way to retain that flange. I will plug weld the new floor to that brace to retain the support.

Normally one would grind down the area over the floor braces to find the spot welds, and then drill them out. The floor was so bad that was impossible. So I used a air chisel to break all the spot welds. Most were no longer attached. You can really see how bad the floor is with it out of the car and sitting on the garage floor.

All of the under floor braces are in good shape. Just surface rusted. One thing I did discover is that body bolt to the frame in that area had rust away and the bottom part of the bolt was long gone.. So I will need to replace that bolt.

Did some initial clean up with a grinder to remove some of the surface rust to prep for priming and welding.

Stay tuned for more progress over the next few days....

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