I have a 97 2WD F-250LD (F-150 w/ bigger rear axle) that has 115K original miles on it. I drive like a grandpa, and my truck generally never shifts above 2K RPM's, although, i've only owned the truck since 111K miles. I was told by my father whom is the regional manager of a Perfection Tire auto shop (Washington/Idaho chain) that I should not do a full flush on my truck and only do a pan drop fluid and filter change, just in case the truck had never had the fluid changed. So, I dropped the pan, drained the pan fluid (About 5 quarts) and replaced the filter. The yellow bobber was still in the pan, indicating that the fluid had never been changed. The fluid that was drained was still fairly red, although the new fluid was considerably "Redder". There wasn't much metal shavings on the pan magnet and no shavings in the pan fluid. So I have a couple of questions.

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#1. Is it possible that the fluids where somehow changed without the pan being dropped? I changed the fluid at 115K miles and the fluid that came out was still pretty red, but from what i've read online, it'd typically be burnt or black and less fluid would have came out. I read about a guy who changed the fluid in his Ford Lightning w/ 100k miles on it and when he dropped the pan only 1 quart drained out, it smelled burnt, and he had sharp layers of metal shards on his pan magnet.

#2. Do you think it'd be safe to drain/flush the torque converter. I've been told the reason why it's not suggested to fully drain the torque converter is that metal parts holding the tranny together will come out during the flush, causing the transmission to have issues and eventually fail

#3. Does the pan fluid eventually get into the torque converter? I guess i'm wondering if the newer fluid will mix with the older fluids in the converter, causing it to be less "Unpure"

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Ok first there are 2 kinds of flushes; a pressurized flush and a non pressurized. The non uses the pressure of the Trans pump to exchange the fluid. Flushing like this won't cause a problem but it will likely make a problem worse.
The fluid circulates through the entire system so yes the new fluid will make it to the torque converter, but I wouldn't say "unpure".
I flush trannies all day, only the ones with existing issues have a problem afterwords.

 

I'd go ahead and flush it. Torque converter fluid will circulate thru trans.
Your tranny may have been flushed before-it's done thru the trans cooler lines. Even if it hasn't been flushed, it's OK to do it now as long as you're not experiencing any problems.

 

So the pan fluid circulates into the torque converter? My truck shifts smooth as hell, generally the only way I know it shifts is by hearing the RPM's drop.

 

Yes it does.

 

My local Ford dealer doesn't even OWN a Tranny "Flush" machine. They just do a drain and fill, which is fine by me. I have heard nothing but bad things about flushing a Transmission. And...my 98' F-150 has access to the Torque Converter to drain that too. The newer model TC's are sealed and cant be drained :-(

 

The whole system holds close to 17 quarts. If you drop the pan you only replace about five quarts. I would recommend reading doing research online, cause there is a lot of information about how to do a entire system fluid replacement.