I have a shift kit for the 3-spd auto. I'm afraid to take the transmission pan off, for fear of dropping something and causing a huge problem.

Can someone give me some guidelines or somethign? Do I need to drain the transmission fluid out first? If so, how, and how do I refill it etc?

The bottom pan is the easy part. Get a large drain pan and losen the bolts, place the drain pan under one corner of the transmissions bottom pan and lower that one corner till the fluid drains out. There will still be some fluid in the bottom pan when you remove it, so don't get you head under it, unless you like to wear tranny fluid! If anything other than the fluid falls out, then you have a serious problem. All the parts in there, except for the filter are bolted in. The filter is pressed into a rubber grommet and shouldn't fall out.

The hard part is the side/valve body cover on the drivers side of the tranny, to access the valve body. To get to it you have to remove the drivers front tire, the plastic shroud and tranny mount (through the wheel well). You will need to support the tranny/engine with a jack, till you get the mount out. You can then remove the side cover.

You can now remove the valve body. I would reccomend you goto Advance Auto, or any parts store with a large selection of Haynes Manuals, and get their GM Automatic Transmssions manual. There is a chapter devoted to the TH125C/3T40s in it. Find the section on the valve body removal and follow the directions. Follow the directions in the shift kit for all the modifications.

Installation/reassembly is the reverse of this proceedure. Be sure to replace the filter with a new one, to clean all gasket surfaces thoughly and use a gasket sealer, such as Permatex Indian Head Gasket Sealer (little brown plastic bottle) to hold the gasket in place during reassembly and seal the gsket to the metal.

When it's all assembled, refill the transmission through the dipstick tube with a funnel. I reccomend B&Ms Original Trick-Shift in this tranny. It too will help reduce clutch slippage, as the kit does, for firmer shifts. The sythetic have too many friction modifiers for this tranny and will cause as much slipage as before the shift kit and just might fry the clutches and band.

On a scale of one to five wrenches, I'd give it a four for difficulty, for the side pan removal.

So the valve body isn't underneath the trans pan then? I have to get to the side of the transmission...?

How about flushing it and stuff? How many quarts does it hold?