Draining trans fluid

[loominaz34]

hey all, I'm getting ready to drain my transmission fluid in the Z this week and i was wondering how i would go about draining the torque converter¿ The haynes manual has no information at all about drain the converter and my dad is adamant about changing ALL of the fluid. which is probably good because it hasnt been done in 117000 miles.

 

Another question is there a drain plug kit available for this?

[DOHCRagtopguy]

Well, you can disconnect the one discharge line from the trans and put in in a pan, run the car, and add fluid thru the dipstick while it's running. That sounds pretty messy to me, though. Procedure is on the W-Body Performance website that is going out of existence next month.

 

Or take it to a place that has a fluid exchange machine. That's it, no other way to get the fluid out of the convertor.

 

http://redfox340.tripod.com/wbodyperformance/id18.html

[paulo57509]

  \ said:

hey all, I'm getting ready to drain my transmission fluid in the Z this week and i was wondering how i would go about draining the torque converter¿ The haynes manual has no information at all about drain the converter and my dad is adamant about changing ALL of the fluid. which is probably good because it hasnt been done in 117000 miles.

 

Another question is there a drain plug kit available for this?

 

GM hasn't provided provisions to drain converters since about when the 4-Speed Hydra-Matics disappeared.

 

You might be able to drill and tap the converter to drain it, plugging the hole with an 1/8" pipe plug. I don't know how this would effect balance, etc.

 

You might want to look into places that do flushes if you really want to be sure that the trans is filled with fresh fluid.

[93CutlassSupreme]

why get all the fluid out?

 

just drop the pan, give it a new filter, put the pan back on, and top it off

 

i got a good 6 or 7 quarts of trans fluid out of mine, that's gotta be a large percentage of the capacity, and plus you'll have a new filter

 

and, you don't have to pay someone to do it

[GP1138]

  \ said:

why get all the fluid out?

 

just drop the pan, give it a new filter, put the pan back on, and top it off

 

i got a good 6 or 7 quarts of trans fluid out of mine, that's gotta be a large percentage of the capacity, and plus you'll have a new filter

 

and, you don't have to pay someone to do it

 

It's not hard to do, at all, just tedious. I'd recommend finding a way to raise the car, even a bit.

 

If you buy a kit from AutoZone, or something, don't leave the store until you check what kind of gasket the kit has. If it has a cork gasket, STOP! Go back to the counter, and say "sell me a rubber transmission pan gasket, bitch!" Don't ever use a cork gasket, it's just too much of a pain to tighten the bolts just right so that you don't break it, and besides, the rubber gasket is cheap. I suggest buying a rubber gasket for cheap now, rather than having to buy all new transmission fluid and having to do all the work of dropping the pan again.

[azxr]

  Quote

Don't ever use a cork gasket, it's just too much of a pain to tighten the bolts just right so that you don't break it

 

I second that. I didn't know until I got home, so just ended up reusing the old gasket. It seems to be holding up fine, but I am going to replace it with a new rubber one as soon as I change the fluid again.

[Guest Gp crazy]

just changed my fluid yesterday 8) it was'nt messy at all i just loosen each bolt a bit even take a few out and angle the pan a bit to one side and drain slow.

my fluid was a bit tan but smelled ok so i dumped it anyways i thought it was only 5 qt's but i turned out to be 7 even what did i do wrong or did it just drip out while i washed the pan and pulled the filter out h i dont know it works fine now 8)

[god910]

If the gasket you took out was a pretty ridged plastic/rubber type, it was probably the GM original, which is re-useable. I suggest staying w/ it unless it's broken. Then rubber, then cardboard, then a shirt sleeve, then leaves off the driveway, THEN and only if others are exhausted, use cork.

[93CutlassSupreme]

yeah really, don't bother replacing the original gm trans pan gasket

[Donsz34]

how many qrts dose the tranny take if you just drop the pan and change the fluid and filter . We have a fleet of 87 trucks at work and all the auto trans have drain plugs on them. We put them on and all the truck.They get fluid changes one year ,filter and fluid the next. im thinking of puting a plug in my pan to.

[Donsz34]

anyone?

[badforu]

as far as trans oil changes.... the most your gonna get is 7- 8 quarts .. Gm now has a trans flush system for there sealed units ... it may adapt to the older ones...

But in any event ... the plug is the best way to go... and i change my trans fluid, as much as will come out at least every other oil change, by plug ... which is a nut welded on teh bottom of the pan with a bolt and a washer ... the washer should be copper or aluminum.. to keep it from leaking.

Then once every other year ... drop the pan and change the filter..

If the gasket have the torgue limiters, metal circles around each bolt hole, Thats consider a "forever" gasket and should be reused as long as there wasnt a leak before.

As far as not changing the fluid... The reason shops wont change badly degraded contaminated fluid is because of the responsiblity if the car dosnt move afterwards. Which could happen, but you can bet that that trans was having mutiple problems before it came there.

So you should always change your trans fluid... even in an attemp to correct a problem. Trans fluid is a hydrulic fluid and the trans needs to have the proper properties in order to do its job... Shifting problems can be caused by the friction material( thats the dirty stuff) getting into the valve body, and a fluid change may help get it out of the valve body.. The dark color is from heat. which is the major thing that breaks trans fluid down. So you basically want a nice red color with a good smell...

If your trans has some miles on it ... you may want to add something to help with friction and to lube up the seals. I have used "translube" for automatic trans with good results. it comes in a red bottle, 12 ozs i think. Kinda like slick 50 for trans. and helps with operation(shifting) of the trans.

Also if your interested , you can open up your filter and look inside... take sidecutters and break it at the seam for 2/3 around it... then be careful so as not to cut your self, i have.. so be care ful , seprate the 2 halfs and then seperate the inner filter... and you may find a few goodies ... normaly it dosnt mean anything if your not having a problem. Ive found copper washers and other debris ....

[matt86]

how long does it take to change out the tranny fluid?

[DaveFromColorado]

... with air tools I can bang it out in a good 45 minutes. with regular hand tools I'd say 'bout an hour to an hour and 15 minutes. just so many little bolts to loosten. if you do get stuck using the cork gasket, don't overtighten it, or it will* crack and leak on you.

 

whenever I change my fluid, I don't go with the normal Dextron/Mercon III I always use Type F (not FA, just regualar F) fluid as it has more friction modifiers in it (Zinc) to help hold the clutches tighter, I noticed a HUGE improvement in my 88 Regal after changing up with type F - I haven't done the fluid in my Z34 yet, altho I will be changing that here in the near future with my next paycheck.

 

--Dave

[dalejr]

Air tools to take it apart sure. Use a speed wrench to put back together. Cant beat good old seat of the pants"torque wrench". BTW Dave I actually have run into people recomending type F instead of Dex. I think B&M did in their shift kits. 6 to 7quarts replacement last time I did it. I would weld the drain plug nut in b4 I would go with the bolt nut and gasket combo. This creates another place to leak.

[DaveFromColorado]

Certinally for taking apart, I'd never put those together with air, I probably should have made that a bit more clear.

 

yup, B&M does recomend Type F, they also recomend Trick-Shift (b&m fluid) but the problem with the trick-shit er, shift is it always seems to blow out seals and rot things that should be rotted.

 

--Dave.