So, changing the trans fluid has to be the messiest work I've ever done on a vehicle. Even after getting the extra-big drain pan, the thing still flopped down the wrong direction and spilled 2-3 qts of ATF on the driveway.... The RTF was a huge pain, too. I had to get out the wire wheel to get all of it off the pan lip and I think the new bead was a little too thick. Things I found:
- The cooler-return filter is WAY too small for even my small filter wrench, but a pipe wrench worked nicely.
- The replacement sump-neck gasket that has to be pressed in mates nicely with the slightly rounded handle of a medium-sized screwdriver, but it made me cry on the inside to hit the blade of the driver with my hammer
- the "drain-back valve" doesn't look to have needed to be changed and would have likely made my re-fill volume significantly less, but now I have more fresh fluid in the system. I was a little scared on that one since the first two threads went in fine, then it got rather hard to turn. I'm hoping I didn't somehow mangle the case, but the aluminum didn't look THAT soft, so I think it's okay.
- It took me almost 4 hours soup-to-nuts to do everything (I'd never opened a t-case before) and apparently I had only 3 hours allocated by my better half (which I had forgotten about during the process).
- engine temps seem to warm up slightly faster, now. Could that be better circulation in the aux cooler doing heat-transfer into the engine coolant?
Dan
