[Adpros]

That looks like the infamous, (At our place), "Purple Fluid". Frequently accompanied by the blue metal innards and sometimes blackened clutches.

First reaction would be a cooked converter and perhaps a forward clutch cluster. U/D + O/D.

Do you have a magnet you can swirl this with? See if it picks up any hitchhikers after a few swirls.

[94Beater]

My first impression was that it looks like water in the fluid, unless it's just a bunch of metal particles.

I would draw some off of the bottom where the water would settle and drip some of it on a hot piece of steel or something to see if it boils. That's the easiest way I can think of. Or just let some settle in a clear glass jar and see if there's a distinct separation layer. Any oil in your coolant??

[Ruggels]

dropped the pan and filter finally... welcoming sight of a layer of metal goup and slivers my dad still wants to take it to a shop to see exactly whats wrong with it... i say whats the point dosnt this mean a new transmission is for sure needed? and how can i figure out what caused the trans to fail so quickly like i said i did a filter/fluid swap less then 6 months ago and the "overall" fluid is only 40k miles since i replaced the last trans and it was empty when i put in... filter also had a black haze on it

what gaskets or what would be the cause of oil or either coolant getting into the transmission

[Adpros]

Water in the trans fluid becomes much lighter in color. This is clutch and fine metal debris.

[EagleESI]

Agreed. Need to have a look at that magnet on the Trans pan.

[Ruggels]

the magnet was covered in about of cm of that metallic goup and i thought of it a bit and i think it is this gear i remembered that ever since i put that transmission in on the very first startup you would be all fine then when you went to drive for the first time in that on/off cycle you could hear a gear grinding for just a sec then its quite i guess that gear musta grinded itself all the way down.... i had a feeling ever since i got the trans that would come back to haunt me... is it the clutch gear like you said? would that be able to be replaced easily or would i need to rebuild, and after letting the old fluid sit for a day and nothing major separated its still all the same color just looks really dark so you think all the stuff mixxed in fluid is metal and such>

[94Beater]

You said that there was no trans oil on the dipstick when you checked it, so maybe just lack of lubrication was the cause? Although when mine was just a tad low, maybe 1/4 quart or so, I started having problems with reverse not engaging which led me to catch the low fluid. I'm surprised you never had that type of problem.

[Adpros]

The grinding you speak of may not have been a conventional gear but, more of a pump whine. Transmissions and Power steering pumps tend to make a grinding type sound when they have air in the system.

[Ruggels]

whatever it was it did it every time i started up the car and drove a few yards, until it was broken but that dos'nt matter.

im also really surprised i had no warning as well which is what irritates me about it, and it didnt have any fluid older then 30-40k miles (mixxed) and 2 pan drops in those 30-40k miles...

either way my plan now with how little money we have is we are going to get a junkyard 2nd gen for 100$ throw it in just so we can get the car on the road again for however many miles while i rebuild the broken 1st gen.... now i know all about all the wiring/bolt/TQ mods that needs to be done, and that i need a 200? for the better strength trans as the 99 and 98 still have same design? and i should flush the system to get all this bad fluid out... i may even skip out on the 2nd gen idea and just get a first gen if the yard has a warranty that will give me time to rebuild mine

heres my questions...
whats the best way to flush the system without taking it to a shop for 150 bucks?
ive read some posts of people saying a rebuilt 1st gen is stronger then a new factory 2nd gen?
whats the diff between the gears on the 2.7 and the 3.x? i know the 2.7 is smaller but what would i want or what would it change?

and lastly how hard is it to rebuild a trans on a scale of 1-10 id assume its an 8-9? while a timing belt is 6-7? is it something i could tackle without previous exp on transmissions? or is it more like following a expensive lego creation that you just have to follow the instructions and not lose the pieces

this plan is running around 250+ for parts (after the rebuild) not counting fluid and the flush, and we can space the cost over a few weeks.... a bit better then 700$ for trans shop just to rebuild it in one big hit