I just bought a 95 Dodge Avenger 2.5 with auto transmission trouble. I dropped the pan and it looked like parts of a roller bearing in the bottom of the pan. The pan was otherwise pretty clean with just a little bit of metal and sludge. The metal could have been from the bearing. The fluid is still reddish in color and doesn't smell burnt. I tried dropping the valvebody but it wouldn't drop all the way down because of what looked like a linkage on the gig round piece on top of the valvebody. Any idea what the needle bearings might be from and how do you disconnect the linkage on top of the valve body?

 

The needle bearing is no good news. And the trick to remove the valve body is to put the shifter all the way into low gear, this will clear the park paw. You will need to remove and tear down the trans to find the needle bearing, that missing some needles from it.

 

parts in the pan is not good news. Like master tech said, you need to figure out where it came from.

What kind of transmission problem are you having?