I'm curious as to how a piece inside the OD housing could make its way to the pan?

 

Same here??

 

That's a part of the OD snap ring, the snap ring runs around the inside of the tranny at about the spot where the trans and OD bolt up together. It's a wavy ring the flexes and softens the engagement of the clutch packs in the OD unit when you shift from 3-4. As only part if it is in the pan, the rest will continue to function, albeit somewhat compromised. The broken part will cause extra wear to the rest of the snap ring and eventually it will fail.

It's not uncommon at all to find pieces of the snap ring in the trans pan. heat tends to fatigue the metal.

 

I wouldn't suggest going to a shop until you have a definite problem. Reason being that any smart shop may try and sell you on stuff you don't need. If you have a definite symptom, then you can get a definite repair. Otherwise it could be money down the drain and this problem may not even get fixed.

 

Uhm...pieces in the pan looks like a definite problem to me.

 

Get AAA and drive the SOB till it fails.

 

That may also be one of the snaprings holding one of the two clutch pack assemblies together. Either way it is a very small piece of a very large circumference ring. While it isn't good to find a piece of metal in the pan, the piece you found is not large enough to do significant damage. It does look like you are getting some pretty good wear inside your tranny though based on how many shavings are on that magnet. I would consider having the tranny system thoroughly flushed including the cooling lines and cooler in the radiator.

 

Yeah, Looks familiar to what I pulled out of my tranny pan on Sunday. I had two shorter pieces about an inch and I removed a 6" piece that was folded like a taco. I think I did the damage about 3 years ago when I moved and had the truck bed loaded with stuff from my garage plus I was towing a 23' sailboat which I had also packed with stuff...I forgot to switch off the overdrive and everything made a terrible noise and stopped as I was slowing down at the toll station. I'm just going to run it till she don't run and then go for a new tranny. I figure once they get into it, no sense stopping half way.

 

Thanks for all the responses It's running great??? But will take it in to get a few opinions as soon as work will allow, will post what their responses are