Ok so I took my blazer in a while back and had it "serviced" yeah RIGHT... today I stopped by the local auto parts place and lifted the hood and checked fluids and figured I'd get whatever I needed and top everything off.... well I pull out the tranny dipstick and about half way up it's rusted ALL TO HELL now the portion that's actually in the tranny looks beautiful.... and come to findout I was damn near 2 quarts low on tranny fluid....:/ so I topped it off and I'm going to change the pan gasket and filter here comin' up pretty damn quick. My question is... is this a common problem for these dipsticks to rust?? Blazer has 86k miles on it.

 

I do not believe that is common. It's the first I've heard of it though. Maybe someone else has heard of it more...

While you have the pan off, I would recommend installing a transmission drain plug and just switch out your fluid every other year or so (depending on mileage).

 

OH yeah.. for sure... does NAPA have the ones that have the bolt with the magnet at the end?

 

The B&M drain plug that I have used does not have a magnet. There is a magnet in the trans pan though. If you have enough clutch/disk material to completely cover over the magnet, your trans is pretty much gone already.

Anyway, here is the plug that I have used a few times:

From B&M Racing - Autmatic Trans Kits, Coolers, & Accesories catalog

 

Kewl... guess I'll be doin' that here comin' up soon... I HOPE to GAWD nuttin' got screwed cause it was low... granted my engine runs like SUPER cool around 170 deg. and the tranny never was slipping or anything.. I'm not hard on it at ALL and no burnt tranny fluid smell.... guess I'll findout soon enough...:P

 

You should be fine.

You realize that your going to ahve to remove your tranny cross brace to get the pan off right?
Careful of the red shower and have cat litter near by. Also buy a can of brake cleaner. Works great at removing the tranny fluid fromt the pan and tranny side where the pan mates to the tranny.

 

Hmm.. Is that a '95 thing about the crossmember? I didn't have to remove mine, nor did we have to remove it when Scott (4lowlife) and I did his shift kit install.

 

I usually use Mineral Spirits to get anykind of petroleum products off... works GREAT and MUCH less volatile than the brake cleaner or carb cleaners.... and Mineral Spirits (paint thinner) leaves a little oily residue behind so if you do get it on rubber parts or whatever it doesn't eat 'em all to hell and back. And if I want something REALLY clean (like for this gasket) I'll just use some denatured alcohol to get that little bit of oily residue off that the mineral spirits left behind....