While I had my 1995 ford contour up on stands I noticed a plug on my tranny that had a square tool bit that it needed it to get out................I used my wrench that fited perfectly in there and took it out.......wow that tranny fluid poored out so fast it went everywhere the draining pan i was usuing was for engine oil and now I know its for engine oil only that was not cool at all but I got like 90% of it but 10% is alot on the garage floor.......I never knew you could do that with a plug I never had a car like that I thought only way to do it was drop the pan............repaced it with ATF that said for most ford vehicles so I hope my 1995 ford contour is in that section............when i moved my wheels back and forth on the stands I heard alot of slack in the differental kinda clunked alittle evertime you switch turning it still kinda shifts like crap dunno if that will ever change probally not but i think its smoother from reverse to drive. Didn't replace the filter tho never thought it was as easy as changing engine oil. Sorry I am just so happy that I have good clean fluid in there plus i put in a bottle of transeal.......they say it had a tranny leak but I dont think so...........engine stop leak didn't work yet its only been like 25 miles tho and it says it takes 250 miles or 3 days. Feel so confident with new fluids

Try to take some pics next time. Unless I missed your photo shoot on this website, I got a really imaginative picture about your car with all the crazy and whacky stories you got for us each week. But thats cool everything worked out for you

I am glad to see that you are paying some attention to maintence, you gotta get the car SAFE and SOLID before you start having fun with it. You will also find that as you maintain your car, and start pouring your blood sweat and tears into it, you might abuse it less. New fluid is GREAT, a new filter would have been even better. Have no clue about the clunk, maybe a CV joint thats seen better days maybe? Might try here

http://www.contour.org

and see if they have any ideas.

Heh cv joint i totally forgot when we had to get the strut assemblys in we had to bounce on the roaters hardcore I have a 390 lb friend literally and he helped me with that we got em in but we tore the boot on the cv joint closest to the tranny that boot we heard the suction and then seen the rip and greese comming out lol o well we rig up so much stuff Would i beable to take pics with my moms camera and have it on a disk and put it on here would that work? If so i would love to post pics of this stuff (its so fun)!

I gaurantee you didn't get 90% of it. Not even close. You didn't drain the TC.

Seriously, if you want to get all of it you have to run the engine for about 15 seconds or so with the drain plug out to empty the system as Willren pointed out. I have to take my hat off to Saturn for making a transmission with a drain plug and....an external filter (just like an oil filter). Talk about the cat'* a%^!! I do believe that they have went away from that again though. Hmmm makes you wonder...

I dunno where the filter is exactly on my ford contour but damn didn't know I had to run the car when the plug is out............can that hurt the tranny in any way?

ASE ceritfied mechanic HELLO

B&M makes a $10 drain plug it. 3/8 drill and it'* in.

The imperative thing here is to run it short...just enough that the fluid is not coming out solidly anymore and then shut off.

And hello GAMEOVER the ASE certicication I did over 2 evenings only because it was something else to put on a resume. The ASE cert is not legal here in Canada to repair cars, you have to do the complete apprenticeship program (which I did from 96-00) which is 9000 hrs (4 1/2 years) with schooling and a government exam. I put the ASE under my name because it is what is understood in the U.*.

Cheers