Hmmm,

I just bought it from my mechanic and discovered last night the tranny'* overfilled and there'* a bit of foam in the fluid.

CAN I JUST PUMP A LITTLE OUT?

Am I gonna lose my tranny since I've driven it with this condition? Should I sue my mechanic?

i would go back to the mechanic first

If I were you I would try to siphon out some of the fluid. Look for a gas siphoning rig in a parts store.
If it was like that when you bought it, I would say you are out of luck getting someone else to pay for any repairs.

Siphon some out, let it sit for a while. Let it idle to warm up, check the level... repeat. Just to be safe, don't move the car till you get the level right and the foam goes away. Did it seem to be shifting right?

Thanks guys. It does shift smoothly. I noticed it "uptake?" a little sharply off the line a time or two but mostly it shifts up and down like I want it to.

I did take it to the mechanic who checked it, told me to bring it back after 12:00 and that driving it the short way home and back won't hurt it.

He said the car sat for awhile and it needs to be driven. On the one hand, I can understand that; let everything loosen back up again. On the other hand...

I'm still a little tense from the problems my last car gave me.

Mike

Sounds like there is a story there, care to elaborate on that?

I wouldn't "drive it till the foam goes away"... That will cause problems.

Still figuring out how to get "quote" to put quoted text into a box, so for now;

"drive it till the foam goes away".
I won't drive it till the foam goes away... I think the mechanic will pump some out, test drive it and see if the foam dissipates. He told me, that he was told, that the tranny was rebuilt. When I asked if someone gave him receipts, he said no. I've known this guy quite awhile and I trust him fairly well. Be nice to see the paper though.

"I'm still a little tense from the problems my last car gave me."
Y'wouldn't want me to open old (recent) wounds, woodja???

90 Skylark/Rebuilt Engine (4yrs ago) Rebuilt Tranny (3 yrs ago) and the pwr windows kept going away, the headliner went away (twice), the driver'* seat back broke (mostly slowly) and the cooling system NEVER worked right. No, I promised myself I wouldn't talk about and see, there ya go, now I'm cryin again... I LOVE that body style though... My kid (14 yo boy) loves it too. Wants it for his own when he'* 16.

Maybe I'll have better luck getting on top of and staying on top of the Bonneville. I like this one a LOT. Just sick of having car problems when seeing my kid depends on my keeping my car on the road. Did the maiden voyage down to Long Beach to get him yesterday and that Bonne is a smooth one!

You bought the car from a mechanic you have known for a long time.
The car had too much transmission fluid in it, presumably you bought it like that.
Wouldn't you think a competent mechanic would notice something like that and fix it before selling the car to you, a long time valued customer? Is this the mechanic that worked on your Buick? If so, I recommend switching mechanics or learning to work on your own cars. But everyone I know that had a Skylark of that era had serious problems with it.

It doesn't matter how long the car sat, the transmission should never be overfilled.

There is a little balloon in the top right corner of every post that says "quote" in it. Left click on that and you are forwarded to the "post a reply" page with the correct html tags already wrapped around the text you want to quote. You can delete those parts of the post that you don't want to include in your reply as long as you keep the square brackets on either end intact. Also note that your reply should be included afterthe bracket containing the forward slash or it looks like the person you are quoting authored your reply.
Typing in the square brackets and stuff does the same thing, but clicking the quote balloon is a lot easier.

He actually didn't do much work on the Skylark - I knew him from days gone by as well. To his credit, he promptly corrected the problem, plus there'* no foam in the fluid so we'll see. And I had some SERIOUS problems with that Skylark. And I did start to learn to work on my own car. Early 90'* Skylarks are notorious for having cooling systems and brake systems that simply can't be balanced.

I have to admit I didn't do a good job inspecting the Bonneville before I bought it. There don't seem to be any major issues lurking beneath the surface but I'll give it a week or two. I did discover the front pass. seat belt won't extend. Do you have a good source for new or reconditioned parts for the Bonneville?