I think I would have tried the simple transmission fluid change-n-flush before messing with the pan. this fixed my daughter's high mileage 240 problem of slow shifting out of 1st when cold.

 

Well, my father and I felt that taking out the old filter and replacing it after the flush of the transmission. Took and hour and a half of flushing to get all of the stuff out. While watching them as well I found out why my cruse control didn't work. Vacuum tube was disconnected and laying on the engine block, so it works now as well.

 

afaik, the AW7x transmissions just have a screen, not a filter.