I was under the car tonight changing the oil and I was also looking at the tranny, i want to change the fluid in it soon...the fill looks like a real PIA, also the full level is a 1/2 inch below the fill opening, so you cant just flow it over the hole and let it level out like the old days. The fill is up along side the tranny, anybody have any ideas how do do this without making a huge mess and swearing up a storm.

 

I just did mine yesterday. Drove it up on the Rhino ramps and opened the drain into a container. Measured it after it drained and found that I had 2.9 Qts. drained out. Excellent, since it holds 3 Qt. Put the plug back in.
I then found about 5' of clear 3/8" tubing that I had laying around, and a small funnel. Took out the fill plug and ran the tubing down next to the fire wall (from up by the battery) and into the fill hole. Put the small funnel into the tubing. Got my 3Qts of tranny fluid, and SLOWLY filled the funnel, it takes alittle while to drain down so don't hurry.
The whole job only took about 1/2 hr and no mess!

 

A trick I have found that helps to smooth out the shifting is to add 1 bottle of friction modifier at the oil change. It really smoothes out the shifts especially at high rpm. I use the Ford stuff from the dealer, I have been doing this for years with out any problems.

 

Excellent, thanks...sounds simple enough, I think the book says 3.2 qts though.

 

Does anyone have anymore info on this...sounds interesting. My tranny seems to shift good enough, I think the shifter is definately suspect though!

 

I did mine and used synthetic trans fluid. I also bought a pump from Checker auto that screws on the bottle it self. It don't get any easier. 3.2 is what I put back in.

 

So how dirty was your fluid? Did you have any metal shavings on the drain plug magnet? Just wondering how necessary this may be at such low mileage.

 

No metal shavings on the magnet. Fluid was a little brownish though.

Mostly I did the change to check the level of fluid in there. When my installer of my 4.10s took the differential apart it only had about 1.5qt of oil and it smelled burnt. He showed it to me and it didn't look good.

And it didn't leak out.

 

How often are you supposed to change the trans fluid?

 

I dont know, but i wanted to change it after breakin just to get all the debris out, especially the full on breakin that i did. i also changed the engine oil at 60 miles and now at 1200 miles. Also , thinking of doing the rear

 

Check the owner's manual for reccomended change times on the fluids, at least on the 02's (which doesnt apply here, I know) the rear end was lubed for life unless the axle was submerged and the tranny had a change interval of 24k

 

Anyone notice a reduction in gear noise after changing the trans fluid?