another one of many trans. questions

[jesilvas]

i used to be one of those people who was blissfully naive about their truck. i mean i kept up on oil and filter changes but nothin else. especially the transmission.
i can guarantee that the fluid has never been changed for three years now and somewhere abour 60k miles or so
i KNOW it needs new fluid for sure. i'm kinda scared to flush it but i figure, if somethin goes bad then i know it wasn't good anymore.
i don't know a lot about transmissions and i would like to. i wanna get in the pan and see what amount of metal i'm looking at on the magnet. seeing as how this is has old, long driven fluid, would it hurt anything to drop the pan, check the magnet, and then replace the filter and add back the lost fluid?
sorry for this so long, i just know nothin about this area

[layson]

No it shouldn't be a problem. Just drain the pan. Remove it, then stick in a new filter, and then fluid...

You could always install a valve body while you have the pan off...

[jesilvas]

yea i was probably gonna do it if i had one. the trans shifts good, doesn't slip that i can tell. i bet the clutches are just a lot thinner now