This summer was a write-off, weather-wise. It practically rained every day for 2.5 months. When your GN has T-roof weatherstripping that leaks and needs to be replaced, it means your car stays in the garage. I think I've had it out only twice all summer!
I didn't have any performance upgrades planned for this season, but the transmission needed attention. The last season, it started having a late 2nd-to-3rd shift under hard acceleration, like it was really reluctant to make that head-snapping, tire-chirping shift that it always used to make. At the very least, it was time to change the tranny fluid & filter, but while I was at it, I wanted to properly check the TV cable adjustment at the tranny and might as well replace the TV plunger spring and TCC solenoid while I was at it, they're both inexpensive parts to replace. My car wasn't exhibiting the downshift issues caused by a failing TCC solenoid, but I figured I'd replace it anyway.
After dropping the pan, I was happy to see the fluid was nice, clear red, with no metal bits anywhere...and was surprised to find a round magnet in the pan that at first I thought, "Oh shit, how did that washer fall out of the transmission?"
There wasn't even any metal stuck to the magnet, just a bit of very fine sludge.
I read that the plunger spring weakens after thousands of depressions, which is why I wanted to replace it. I was still quite surprised at the difference between a newer, stronger Sonnax spring and the old original spring I pulled out. The springs is supposed to be about 1.90 inches, and the new Sonnax spring is exactly that. The spring I pulled out--not so much. At first, I thought I must've got the wrong replacement spring, but closer inspection showed both springs have the exact same wire thickness and diameter, and the old spring was simply compressed much more. Check out the difference 30+ years makes:
Replacing this spring is a pretty easy process once you've removed the pan, but one thing was giving me headaches that I never saw mentioned anywhere else, and thought I'd bring it to anyone's attention who does this service. You have to remove the TV plunger bracket to remove the spring, there's only one bolt that holds it in. There's a little bent wire that connects the end of the TV cable to the plunger swing arm, and of course, that wire popped out and my bracket assembly dropped to the floor. When it was time to reassemble the bracket, when I tested the TV cable action with a full depression, something was binding. The bracket assembly has a captured spring for the swing arm rotation, but there's another thin, very soft spring that's about 2.5" long and something like a cotter pin with one side bent 90 degrees captured inside that soft, thin spring. Something in that cotter pin/spring alignment upon reassembly just wasn't working until I figured out what the hell was wrong...after nearly losing the bloody spring TWICE when it jumped out while I was playing with the assembly to figure out how it worked.
So, to spare yourself the same frustration if you do this job, note that the straight arm of the cotter pin slips into a hole on the underside of the transmission housing, which captures it and keeps it in place when the TV cable/plunger assembly is pressed. The 90-degree bent arm of the cotter pin will easily slide up & down in the slot on the side of the TV plunger bracket once the straight arm is inserted in the little hole underneath the tranny housing. It's a bit of a challenge to get the long straight pin arm into the hole when reassembling the bracket assembly, while at the same time connecting and holding the bent connecting wire between the swing arm and end of the TV cable. Just be aware of this, if you don't install that bracket assembly properly, that spring and cotter pin could very easily end up popping out and into your tranny, which would NOT be a good thing. It's so important to mention this because NONE of the articles I read on replacing the TV plunger spring even mentioned a word of this.
I also installed a drain plug in the pan. I spent a few hours searching online for anything to show exactly where to drill the hole in the pan, but the only thing I found was one guy who put his drain plug in the bottom of the pan, near the dimple where the round magnet goes. This unfortunately means the nut on the bottom and drain plug hang down and could easily tear off if you hit a speed bump or bottom out. The GNTType articles only say to "check everything before drilling" and have no pictures...the problem being, even if you "check everything before drilling", once you've drilled, it's too late to say "Oops" and do it over again. Sheesh...
So if anybody else is wondering where to put your drain plug, with it NOT being on the bottom of the pan where the drain plug could potentially tear off if you bottom out, here's what seemed to work for me:
It looked like a good location that had more than enough clearance was on the driver's side, just above the second bolt hole, as shown above. This location is also quite easily accessible from the driver's side of the car. I used the nylon washer to see how far down on the ban I could install the plug, pressing on top & bottom of the washer to make sure I wasn't putting it in the rounded part at the bottom. If you're too far down, pressing the nylon washer on top or bottom will make the opposite end pop up a bit. If the surface is mostly flat, the washer will look flush with the surface and pressing on top and bottom won't make the other end of the washer lift up.
So, that's where I put mine; now anybody else think of doing this will hopefully find this useful instead of trying in vain to find pictures online and getting nowhere.
Dad's 81 now - still won't sell it to me! Had to get my own 15yrs back.
I'm more into being an individual than fitting in with the crowd. 
(Couldn't have picked a better smiley...)
