Date: Wed, 27 Feb 2008 11:29:12 -0600
Reply-To: Ben Cichowski <aquasheck@HOTMAIL.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Ben Cichowski <aquasheck@HOTMAIL.COM>
Subject: Re: trans fluid
In-Reply-To: <022720081711.2302.47C599D5000E28B4000008FE2215586394C9C9CDCB020E03020100@comcast.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
Good points Jeff,
As for tools, I made my own by using 2 nuts and a 1" bolt with a 17mm head on it. put the two nuts on and tighten them against each other - you can then put a wrench on this section (inner nut for loosening, and outer nut for tightening) and place the bolt head in the tranny plug, which is about the same depth anyway (very shallow). There's a pic somewhere on the internet....I don't recall where, but it worked great.
And yup, Jeff is totally correct, make sure you take out the filler plug first to make sure you can indeed get it out. But it looks like this tranny is out of the vehicle, so it is not as much of an issue?? Right on with the filler, it sure makes things easy - Ken of Van Again gave me that advice and it was a life saver - not sure how folks do it with a funnel and long tube...but all the power to them.
Also, the drain plug (I think that's the one) has a magnet on it. Make sure you clean that off well to get any metal shavings off that have accumulated in your tranny.
Like Jeff, I use MT-90 also (might be worth ordering it if you can't find it local - made a HUGE difference for me). If you're in a cold climate like I am, I hear the difference is even more noticeable. I'm in a small town and had to do some searching for it. As I understand, a lot of Chevy's take it - maybe try your local Chevy dealer???
-Ben
> Date: Wed, 27 Feb 2008 17:11:49 +0000
> From: fonman4277@COMCAST.NET
> Subject: Re: trans fluid
> To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
>
> >Also, how much is needed?<
>
> >I think for a 4 speed MT tranny you'll need to buy 4 quarts. It says either 3.2
> or 3.4 in Bentley, I don't recall which (but it also depends on how much you get
> out initially). I did this a few months ago and it helps a TON to buy one of
> those little trans-fill pumps for $7 that sit inside the container and allows
> you to pump it in through a tube....oh...looks like you have the tranny out -
> even easier, just dump it in, sorry for not reading thoroughly.<
>
> You will need 4 quarts, although you won't use too much out of the 4th quart. I can't see how you'd do it without the pump adaptor (as expensive as MT-90 is, I didn't want it all over the driveway) . I bought the 17mm fill plug wrench from NAPA, found it too big to get in there to remove either the drain plug or the fill plug, had to cut about 1 inch off of it and put that in a 17mm box end wrench and it worked like a champ. Another bit of advice I had gotten-make damn sure you can get the fill plug out before removing the drain plug. Bentley does mention a lower fill level, something about hard shifting if filled all the way to the edge. I used the MT-90, and my trans shifts very smoothly now, well worth the money, IMHO. Jeff
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