Thaddeus

Hey,

Title says it all. I want to do a stopgap fluid change until the weather warms up, is there a way to drain -most- of the fluid (I know it will not empty the torque converter) without pulling the pan?

tia

Thaddeus

JE928Sx4.

You can empty it all without removing the pan. The pan has a plug, and the TC has a plug. Just drain the pan first. The turn the engine over using the crank bolt to expose the TC drain plug and drain that. Then you can put all new Tranny fluid in. It doesn't take much more effort to drop the pan and replace the gasket and filter though.

Regards,
JE

Thaddeus

thanks

Rich9928p

My 928s don't have a plug in the A/T pan. The pan must be removed.

Rich

JE928Sx4.

You sure? All the auto's I have owned have/had them. 2 83's and 2 86's.

Rich9928p

Sorry, I was wrong - JE is correct (and he is the one popping pain meds). A quick look to PET confirmed there is a plug.

dr bob

But--

Why not just do the pan and filter at the same time? The big messy part of the fluid change project is all over before you undo a few bolts to lower the pan. Take the extra five minutes, change the filter and INSPECT THE PAN FOR RESIDUE.

Refilling seems to take the same amount of effort whether the pan is removed or not...

My .02

Tony

Now filling it is the fun part!

Thaddeus

sigh

dr bob

Folks contniually gripe about the filling part, when it's not that big a chore. Find a gear oil pump at Pep Boys, the Sta-Lube one that's designed to screw into the top of the bottle. It screws into the top of a Mobil-1 ATF bottle directly, or add a short ~8" section of 3/8" ID clear hose (from Home Depot) to the suction end so it dips to the bottom of a normal ATF bottle where the neck is too small for the pump to fit inside. Add several feet of 5/16" ID hose to the discharge, and send the hose over the right side exhaust so the end sits in the reservoir. Add a tie-wrap around the exhaust and the hose to hold them in place. Pump in 7.5 quarts of ATF (for the 4 speed in my '89...), stopping when the reservoir gets full to run the engine and fill the torque converter. 20-30 Seconds per run, and it takes a few. With the car still on stands, I can lay on the floor next to the car and do the pumping in relative comfort as I watch the level in the reservoir. Bunch of newspaper on the floor under the reservoir and under the bottles and pump makes clean-up a snap. Hoses can go in a ziplock with the pump, but they will be dry and crispy by the time you need them again so might as well toss them now.

Hey, we only need to do this every 25k, right? That's every seven years at the rate I roll the miles up on my car...

Garth S

To be the devils advocate - is there not an advantage in doing an initial drain as Thad proposes? Do so, and then after a week or so of driving ( and warmer weather for some of us), drop the pan and filter for a complete drain and refill.
This way, the coolers and lines plus trans/convertor get a reasonable cleansing with fresh fluid into a filter that will soon disappear.
If using regular ATF, the cost is reasonable: Any advantage to doing this? - in prep for those next 25K miles ....

Thaddeus

My reason for wanting to do it this way is basically indefensible, but: the fact is, I don't want to have the car out of service for a weekend anytime soon. When the weather's warm enough to replace the filter, it will be warm enough to drive, and I've already been waiting to drive that thing since early December. The first few warm weekends I'm going to be enjoying the car, not laying underneath it. Come July, I'll be sated enough to accept some downtime...

John Struthers

????
Just do it ya lazy bastage...
Weekend?????
Puhleez.