Questions for the Transmission Experts

[BSB97]

I am swapping out transmissions on a 98 Camry and I have couple of questions that hopefully someone can help me with.

1. There is a piece of foam rubber that sits between the transmisison and the engine that partially covers the plate that gives you access to the flywheel to remove the torque converter bolts. This piece of foam/rubber basically disintegrates when you remove it. What is this for and is it necessary to replace this?

2. The replacement tranny may have a slight amount of engine debris (grimey stuff) that fell into the hole where the shift solenoid E goes. Is there any way to "flush" this out before installing or would a flush (the one listed on this board) immediately after installation take care of this? Or should I try something else?

This is my only shot at not spending a lot of money to get this car fixed so I want to take all the precautions I can.

Thanks for your help.

[garyinpt]

that black foam piece I believe is just a vibration dampener...no biggie, leave it off. As for the flush, I'm no expert but I think a very good flush shoud suffice, but change the filter afterwards and you should be good.

[Mister_Perkins]

that piece of foam basically falls off the pins when you remove the two mounting bolts (10mm). I keep mine in place, even though it probably doesnt matter. lol

Edit:

If you want to flush possible debris out, I suggest Dropping the pan and the Valve body (getting replacement gaskets) and flushing transmission fluid into the Solenoid hole. Let it drain down to the pan. Then when you get the transmission installed, I also recommend doing a complete transmission flush, flushing out any old fluid.