Tonight I removed the return line from the trans and routed it into a clean 5 quart jug and had the Mrs. start it up. It chugged out 3 quarts of perfectly new looking atf before it started dribbling. She shut it off. Waited 15 seconds and I had her start it again. Got another .5 quarts out. Then I dropped the pan. Filter was in place. Filter looks perfectly new through the little intake window. Minimal stuff on the magnet, maybe 1 mm......maybe. I did however have a thin sheen of very fine sparklies along the bottom. Cleaned everything and reassembled with a new filter. New filter snapped in place, two pegs do the snapping, but still definitely jiggly. Now I just noticed that the filter has 3 or 4 bubbles on the bottom, and there are 3 or 4 corresponding bubbles on the pan. It looks as though the function of the bubbles on the pan might be to firmly hold up the filter, or at least prevent it from dropping out. The problem now is that I have a rubber gasket in place, which distances the pan from the filter 3mm or so. Could this be a problem? I am going to leave the trans fluid in the jug overnight and pump it out carefully tomorrow to see if there is any junk on the bottom. It is only 3k miles old. Thanks guys.