Did a Tranny filter job today...and found this...

ChooChooman74 · **Posted:** Sat Jun 09, 2012 4:52 pm

Well, first of all, I just bought the CRD with 77K on the clock. It is now 80K and I had the time and money to do the transmission and transfer case today. First of all, I found the pan to be sealed with RTV Silicone. My guess, from the factory? I am assuming that the dealer or any other shop would have used a gasket instead of RTV. Am I correct on my assumption?

2nd of all, I was using an air ratchet to take off the bolts. Well, I was cursing at myself because one "broke" off with no problems. Upon closer inspection, I expected to find clean metal at the break. Nope, the break was covered with RTV silicone. I quickly came to the conclusion that this was done before hand and the perpetrator covered his or her tracks by just siliconing the bolt in.

Also, whoever did the siliconing did a piss poor job. I found some traces inside the pan itself while I was washing the pan and roving the old stuff.

Should I be "ok" minus one pan bolt? Looking at it, the Jeep has survived 80K without it.

Joe Romas · **Posted:** Sat Jun 09, 2012 5:12 pm

They came with RTV sealing the pan :SOMBRERO:

But someone broke a bolt and covered their tracks. Why not just drill it out and try a. easy out on it? If not I believe it's a 6mm. The FSM says it's fine to use a heli-coil on stripped ones.

geordi · **Posted:** Sat Jun 09, 2012 5:40 pm

Beware - One of the bolt holes may be larger (at least on my old transmission it was) over on the passenger side IIRC. I couldn't figure out why I couldn't get all the bolts in place, I think that one had been installed and siliconed in place too, b/c all the bolts I had were the same size.

ChooChooman74 · **Posted:** Sat Jun 09, 2012 7:16 pm

Joe Romas wrote:

They came with RTV sealing the pan :SOMBRERO:

But someone broke a bolt and covered their tracks. Why not just drill it out and try a. easy out on it? If not I believe it's a 6mm. The FSM says it's fine to use a heli-coil on stripped ones.

TC is getting done this winter. The tranny will be out for that. I will have that bolt fixed then.

Here is a question. I had my Libby up on ramps, and I had it sitting for a while draining. I read that 5 quarts is what it takes for a filter job. I kinda laughed when I saw it, because between the Transfer Case and Tranny, I had more than 7 quarts. I am up to my 9th quart going in the tranny. Could I have drained a lot more than expected? And yes, I did take it off the ramps and checking the fluid on lever ground...

geordi · **Posted:** Sun Jun 10, 2012 3:32 pm

No, sounds about right... I did 7 quarts before I got decent readings on mine, and ended up with 8+ with a bottle of lucas and topping it with a bit more to get it where I wanted it on the stick.

The book is wrong about so much else... Why not this too?

ChooChooman74 · **Posted:** Sun Jun 10, 2012 4:23 pm

geordi wrote:

No, sounds about right... I did 7 quarts before I got decent readings on mine, and ended up with 8+ with a bottle of lucas and topping it with a bit more to get it where I wanted it on the stick.

The book is wrong about so much else... Why not this too?

Oh good. Thanks for the tip. I let it drip for about an hour while I was washing the pan and checking over the broken bolt. I ended up putting about 9 1/2 in and right now, when cold, I am just a smidge over the cold reading. Since I don't have a scan tool to see the temp, I decided to recheck it first thing in the morning. I may be a smidge over, but not too drastic.

geordi · **Posted:** Sun Jun 10, 2012 6:53 pm

If you are that far down even after 9.5 quarts, you might have gotten more out of it by having it up on ramps and sitting for a long time. I change mine sitting flat on the ground. Don't forget that the check valve is also in the spin-filter, so if that wasn't in place when you had it sitting there at a steep angle, you could certainly get more out of the TC draining back.

The "new" fill for these things is like 17 quarts or so... So putting a little more in isn't going to bother it. What you don't ever want is air pockets in the system from low fluid. Give it a couple days of driving around, and see how it performs as it works the air back to the pan. If (when warmed up) it feels like you are slipping a clutch while trying to gently move away from a dead stop... You need more fluid. It should feel SOLID when you ask it to accelerate away from a stop, instant response, not a laggy start. If you have ever had the "drainback" problem, you know what that "slipping clutch" feels like. FYI: A bottle of Lucas Transmission Fix would not be a bad idea to drop into your transmission even now - The stuff is bear snot, and keeps the drainback problem from happening, as well as keeping the rest of the transmission happier.

ChooChooman74 · **Posted:** Sun Jun 10, 2012 10:41 pm

Dude you are a wealth of knowledge! Wish I had someone like you living nearby, although my long time friend has worked on a few of these at his diesel shop.

I live 30 miles from work, so it will get a good workout. So far, so good. I am always nervous about transmissions since my E4OD on my 7.3 idi. Went through 2 of them.

I will stop by my FLAPS and pick up that tranny treatment.

Sent from my DROID BIONIC using Tapatalk 2

geordi · **Posted:** Mon Jun 11, 2012 2:49 am

Heh - It may be that the purpose of my life is to serve as a warning to others. :mrgreen:

Pretty much, if it can go sideways on a vehicle... I've probably done it. My family all drives a LOT, and I've become the de-facto mechanic (Oh, goody) so I get to deal with a lot of this crap. I'm surprised that you had 2 Ford transmissions die on you, those are solid units (at least the AOD was) for me, but then again, I had an AXOD on my 95 Taurus eat itself right at 80k miles, right on schedule for the design.

For Chrysler transmissions, especially in FWD vehicles... I learned a great deal about the problems with a FWD system: They overheat. A LOT. MY 94 T&C minivan ate 3 transmissions at just about 40k miles EACH before we got the LOVELY Chrysler design flaw fixed: Cut out the factory radiator heat-installer and put in an external transmission cooler in front of the radiator. The van now has 230k miles on it, with the same transmission from 120k.

Did a Tranny filter job today...and found this...

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