Correctly refilling an AOD

[Broncobill78]

I have everything finished & buttoned up but now I've gotta refill this new AOD & for the life of me can't find a proper procedure. I seem to recall filling the C6 about halfway then firing it up & letting it spin in Neutral to pump the fluid from the pan into the torque converter & then filling it the rest of the way. The TC & tranny are empty right now but if I just go & dump in 3 gallons of ATF I'm thinking I'll have a problem. I haven't had an AOD before so I'm not sure what the correct refill deal is. Does it need to pump the ATF into the converter or *can* I just dump it in and as the level in the pan rises it'll find a path to the converter. Hate to go & ***** the thing up NOW. My neighbors will be *entirely* too entertained if something like that happens. The truck will wind up w/more bullet holes in it than it already has.

 

[bidibronco]

I thought that you were supposed to fill the converter up before you put in the tranny? At least that's how I always did it... I think...

 

[Broncobill78]

Well, that MAY have been the way to go but it's a little late for that now /emoticons/[email protected] 2x" width="20" height="20" /> Like I said, w/the C6 I filled it halfway & let the tranny pump refill the converter then filled it all the way. I got about 2.5 gal into it before the filltube puked. The engine spun a few times w/the either so I need to ck it again and see where it's at now

 

[bidibronco]

I helped a fellow redo an old 7.3 non-turbo and his tranny was like 6QT low. Just fired it up and put it in qt by qt

 

[Redneck86]

Ive never heard of doin your way, i always thought you HAD to fill the converter up before puttin it in the trans. Guess i learned somethin new /emoticons/[email protected] 2x" width="20" height="20" /> . But i see no reason why if it worked on the C6 why it wouldnt work on the AOD.

 

[EvlFaust]

I've done it exactly as BroncoBill explained. There have been times (yes more than once) where I have gotten a tranny installed without pre-filling the converter. I would always fill the tranny up to about half of what capacity was expected to be, depending on the size pan attached, ran the engine for a couple of minutes shifting through all of the gears. Then I would fill it up the rest of the way, run the engine again shifting through all of the gears, and then checking fluid level and topping off as necessary. My understanding is that the TC engages directly with the front pump of a transmission, so as BroncoBill put it, the fluid will transfer from the pan to the TC.