I was looking throunght the service manual last night and noticed that if you remove pan and filter then it only requires 1 1/2 quarts to refill, yet the capacity of everything, torque converter, coooler, etc is like 6 quarts.
Pardon the stupid question but wouldn't it be much better to drain it all, or is that such a PITA that it is not done unless you tear the whole thing down? Does a torque converter have a drain plug? (told you they were stupid questions)

 

I think its a good question. the last time i worked on a trany was about 15 years ago on an old ford c-6. I remember a T/C drain plug on that one but it was such a PITA to get to I never drained it.

 

The Dodge TC does not have a drain plug to drain the TC. When I had my filter changed last month it took 6.5 qt’s of fluid to fill it back up even though Dodge told me it took 5 qt's for filter change.

 

the only way to exchange ALL the fluid is to remove the fluid return line from the tranny and put that into a bucket, with a few gallons of ATF start the truck and put it in neutral and begin to pour tranny fluid down the dipstick hole untill the fluid is no longer dark.

personaly, just dump whats in the pan, change the filter(s) put pan back on and refill.