Steve wanted to take a ride in the car to see how the transmission was acting. After a splash of gas at the local station, I was driving the back roads to let Steve hear how the C-4 Cruise-A-Matic was shifting through the gears. We put the Cougar through some paces and tried slow and fast starts from a dead stop and manually shifting through the gears forward and backward. Steve determined that the shift from 1st gear to 2nd gear seemed smooth, but when shifting from 2nd gear to 3rd gear something was slipping, but not each time.
I drove the Cougar back to my parent's house and proceeded to get started. I put the car up on the lift and gathered tools to get going. Steve said that I would be turning the wrenches and that was fine with me because I learn better that way!
Parts List:
Wix Transmission Filter and Pan Gasket PN 58923 - $6.98
1 gallon Automatic Transmission Fluid
24 oz. bottle of Lucas Oil Transmission Fix - $11.99
Tools List:
3/8 inch socket wrench
1/2 inch socket
7/16 inch socket
1/4 inch socket wrench
5/16 inch socket
Common screwdriver
Torque wrench (Inch lbs.)
Fluid catch pan
I started by loosening the eleven 1/2 inch bolts on the bottom of the transmission pan. Steve advised that I completely remove bolts on one end to start to empty the fluid from the pan. If I loosened all of the bolts and dropped the pan then transmission fluid would be all over the floor. After I removed the bolts from one end I inserted the screwdriver between the pan and the body of the transmission to pry open the pan and let some of the fluid out. The fluid splashed down in the catch tray and I continued loosening the bolts and repeated the process with the screwdriver until I had to remove all the bolts holding the pan to the transmission to get the rest of the fluid out.
The next step was to remove the filter from the bottom of the valve body. This was pretty easy as it was attached with mostly 5/16 inch bolts plus one 7/16 inch bolt. I took the old filter off and put the new one on with ease.
I cleaned the transmission pan and getting the pan gasket ready I put the pan back on and tightened the eleven bolts back down. As I was putting the pan back on Steve used the torque wrench to adjust the bands from the outside of the transmission. I added the Lucas Oil transmission fix and most of a gallon of transmission fluid. I got too much fluid in there and created a puddle on the floor so we needed to take some out. We removed roughly a quart of fluid to get back to the correct level on the dipstick.
After checking the level one last time, Steve and I went for another ride. The car performed normally when we started moving and there were no leaks when backing out of the garage. Steve directed me through the same series of tests from before. The slip from 2nd to 3rd was still there so I'll just have to live with that for a while until it's time to rebuild the transmission.
As we were working Steve knew where to find the tags and part numbers for the transmission. Here's what we found out about the transmission in the Cougar. With a little more research we could probably find out what month and year the transmission was produced.
- Transmission Part Number: C6DP-7006-A
- Transmission Tag: PEE C 2896M27B4
- Servo Cover Tag: C6AP-70027-C
- Valve Body Tag: 2P 3
- Paint the hood scoop red and take off the rear spoiler and fill in the holes
- Check out the transmission - adjust bands, add new fluid, new filter, and pan gasket
- Install new KYB gas-a-just shocks on all four corners
- Start gathering parts for the missing heater system
- Shine wheels [half done]
- Wash and wax car
- Aim headlights
- Flush radiator
