Type/level of fluids for a '57

[dickday0]

Greetings.

I just bought a restored '57 Tbird that has 20, 330 miles. It has about 35 miles on it since the complete engine rebuild. I have documents to back up the mileage claim. The car sat in a storage locker for at least 5 years and then was traded in on a new Lincoln back in 2014. The dealership stripped it down and spent well over a year restoring it. I am the third owner. It had been sitting on the showroom of the dealer for the past year as an attraction.

The power steering reservoir's dip stick has printed on it "Auto Trans Fluid A". The red fluid comes up to the 't' in the word Auto. Looking at the distance between the other markings, I think the fluid is very low. The engine was not running when the dipstick was read.

The engine dipstick also shows the oil to be very low. The oil comes up to just past the "Add:" wording. The oil is clear. The restoration paperwork shows that they used Ford's 10w-30 api gf5

The tranny dipstick has the words "Auto Transmission At Idle" stamped into it. The fluid goes way above the full mark. Again, I looked at this with the engine running.

Thoughts concerning the above? Concerns about mixing fluid types?

Thank you for any thoughts you may have.

 

[Frango100]

I´m changing the fluid in my 58 T-bird now as well. The original fluid was ATF Type A, followed by ATF Type A Suffix A. Somewhere in 63 i believe they went to ATF Type F, which was the standard until the Mercon brand appeared. Since i couldn´t find the ATF Type F, i went with the Type A Suffix A. It seems that the Type A, Type A suffix A and Type F don´t have friction modifiers in them, which causes less slippage of the clutches and bands, but makes the shifts from P to R or N to D more feelable.
Did you check the transmission fluid level with the fluid at operating temperature? A too high level is not good, since the moving parts can be in the fluid and will churn air into the fluid, causing foaming.

 

[dickday0]

Thanks for such a quick reply!

I chickened out and took my car to the mechanic. I thought the PS, engine and tranny fluids all looked low. He said they were all ok.
He did say that the heater core was leaking. That would explain why the passenger side of the windshield was fogging up. I found new ones on ebay for about $100.

 

[1957Bird]

The trans out of my 1957 is empty and ready for refill. What is new equivalent to the old ford type A trans fluid??
Tks
Roger

 

[cokefirst]

The closest fluid is Dexron III. Lots of people will tell you type F. There hare been a number or articles on this and he closest fluid to Type A Suffix A that is readily available is Dexron III. I have seen several posts where people have used type F and it works. It probably does not make a bid difference in this transmission, but if it were my car, I would use the Dexron.

 

[CSPIDY]

I've been running Type F in mine without any issues for four years now.

 

[doug7740]

Attached is an article on automatic transmission fluid. I hope this will help you decide what kind of transmission fluid you should use in your 1957 Thunderbird.

doug7740
1955 Thunderbird Blue