About my transmission issues…(see this thread: https://honda-tech.com/forums/showthread.php?p=41962659)

I remember changing the transmission fluid last August. When I drained the oil, it was dark and looked almost like what I would expect to see when draining engine oil.

Intuition says that transmission oil does not see combustion byproducts, so it should not be dirty. Unless a seal was letting dirt inside or something else out of the ordinary was going on.

OR, is this what factory oil looks like (from 1988) that has never been changed? Seeing how the Honda MTF had not been developed back then…

 

It should not get dirty sounds like you trans is cooked. I'd try and flush the system, put some new fluid in it drive it for like 3k miles drain a bit out to see the color

 

should be like fresh oil, yellow/gold and clear.

this is manual tranny fluid of course. auto is red.