Greetings --

I'm a proud (albeit slightly flustered) new owner of a 1970 El Camino. The name "Amino" is because one of the fender nameplates lost the "El C". All things considered though, she's in pretty good shape, and now lives maybe 40 miles from where she was built in Van Nuys CA. She has a 350 engine and what looks to be a TH350 transmission.

Last Sunday, as I was pulling out of the garage to take a couple pictures, the Blue Amino left all of her red transmission fluid at the end of the driveway. The culprit was some small hose clamps up close to the transmission, and both lines came undone.

I'm hoping to reconnect those over the weekend. My question is: how much transmission fluid am I going to have to add, and where exactly do I add it? The Haynes manual says 3 qt.s if changing, ~11qts if "dry". I figure I saw more than 3 qts in the street. I think I know which one is the transmission dipstick (way back against the firewall, just a little to the passenger side). Is that the fill access too, or did I miss it?

I'm a little worried about putting too much or too little, just want to make sure I don't mess up the transmission. I just spent my disposable income on buying her.

Thanks in advance, I'll post pics of the Blue Amino once I can get it out of the garage again.

Mike

http://elcaminocentral.com/users/elcamino/alphabet/w.gifhttp://elcaminocentral.com/users/elcamino/alphabet/e.gifhttp://elcaminocentral.com/users/elcamino/alphabet/l.gifhttp://elcaminocentral.com/users/elcamino/alphabet/c.gifhttp://elcaminocentral.com/users/elcamino/alphabet/o.gifhttp://elcaminocentral.com/users/elcamino/alphabet/m.gifhttp://elcaminocentral.com/users/elcamino/alphabet/e.gif

Welcome to ECC/NECOA Mike!

...I think I know which one is the transmission dipstick (way back against the firewall, just a little to the passenger side). Is that the fill access too, or did I miss it?

Yes, you've found the correct dipstick. The dipstick is where you add fluid to the transmission too. Fluid should be added while the engine is running. I would suggest adding a pint at a time and checking the level in between pints.

Ernie --

Thanks for the info and warm welcome. I'll post some pictures in a thread in the Intro forum once I'm up and running

Welcome aboard. Time to go buy a skinney funnel!

Hi 70 blue. This is how I get to add tranny fluid. I had a 4x4 ELC that was hard to reach the dip stick to add. So I took a empty rear end juice bottle, cleaned it out real good and put tranny fluid in it. For my Vett just a finger over the end worked, on the 4x4 I had to put a short hose on it. The one I have has the pints/quarts marked up the side. Hope this makes it a little easyer for you. SAYBYE

Thanks all for the tips. The long skinny funnel technique worked good. It was a little tricky to tell when I had enough fluid. The dipstick would get fluid on it since the dipstick sleeve was coated. I thought things were okay, but half way down the block, I could tell it wasn't. A couple tries, adding another pint or so, and things look good now. It ended up taking about 5 1/2 quarts.

Thanks for the help. Click here to see what the Blue Amino looks like:

http://members.aol.com/mbstemig/blueamino.jpg