recently bought a 1984 trans am and wanted to know how long it would take for very low transmission fluid levels to cause damage on a car, i noticed it jerks when put in Drive and in Reverse and also some noise that i sometimes hear noise under the car. at some point when i was going down a busy road i felt the car shake after shifting. i was shocked to see that barely any fluid showed up on the dipstick when i checked with the car running, and the car has been on the road 3 days and drivin locally while in my care and god knows how long under the previous owner, but it shifts fine and has only occasional lag. im putting fluid in now and wanted to know if any, what damage i can be there could be
hopefully the issues will go away when i put in the fluid

thanks guys

 

If there was fluid on the stick, all hope is not lost. Top it off and hope for the best

 

when the engine is off you can see fluid on the dipstick, but its full now and the issues haven't gone away