I'm changing my transmission pan gasket over the weekend (Or so the plan), as well as changing the tranny filter at the same time (As it seems easy enough).

When I drop the pan, I plan to drop the front while leaving the back on (So the fluid pours out the front into a waiting drain pan).

How much fluid should I buy to put back in the transmission?

And is the transmission fluid, when sitting in the transmission fuller than the pan (Will it spill out the minute there's an opening, or would I have a chance to lower the pan)?

 

Having just done that last week I can tell you.

Once you have an opening it will pour out do as you wrote undo all the bolts except for the ones at the back so it will pour out the front.

You will need about 5L of new fluid to fill it back up. Maybe install a drain plug while you have the pan out. As it does get a little messy without one unless u have a hoist which most of us don't.

 

When you undo the pan it will poor out everywhere get in your mouth and make a big mess. You'll have no chance to lower it.

 

This job keeps sounding messier and messier.

I got a pan that's about 3 feet long by 2 feet wide - hopefully that will be enough to catch the fluid if I only undo the front bolts.

I assume this is as easy as I suspect - undo bolts, fluid comes out, change filter, hold pan in place while doing up bolts?

 

yeah thats it, make sure the old o ring on the old filter comes out.
They usually get stuck and have to be pulled out.

 

Is this something that I'll understand once I've taken the old filter out or ... ?

 

should be, i almost missed it though, the filter has a tube that goes up into the tranny, on your new filter, you'll see the orange o-ring, just look up in the slot where the old filter plugged in and see if the o ring is still their. easy to spot.

for the gasket what i did was lay it on the pan, put all the bolts in to hold the gasket in place, then bolted it up that, worked great.

 

So on my new filter the O-Ring will already be attached to the tube, all I need to worry about then is digging out the old one?

 

And if you get out of luck the O ring will be bonded to the trans. And the only way I could get it out was to scrape it off piece by piece, real PITA.

That's what happens when they don't change the O ring when they change the filter.

 

I'm almost positive my filter has never been changed.....

Hopefully that doesn't make the job worse...

 

The amount of Fluid I used when changing the fluid and filter on my car was approx. 5 quarts and the fluid will begin to pour out when you loosen the pan bolts.

 

Ordered the Fram filter/gasket kit last night, since I found out it uses a FILTRAN filter like the OEM ones.

Will the cork gasket that comes with the kit (FT1074) work fine without RTV (Since it's my impression you can't use RTV)?

 

No one has mentioned that the dirty old original factory filter will probably not be of the same design as the new filter. The design was changed a bunch of years ago. The original design used a metal bracket that the new filter does not use.
Let us know how the fluid that runs down your forehead tastes.

 

My Trans. filter kit came with a cork gasket which I applied a light coating of Non Hardening Permatex sealant which resulted in no leaks.

 

Cork gaskets are fine without RTV, just don't overtorque the bolts.

 

I always buy FelPro TOS-18663, which is a regular gasket for our 700r4's, not that cork stuff.

To avoid leaks, the trans pan flange (where the gasket goes) and the mating surface on the tranny case should have NO trans fluid on it. Wipe the trans pan down like hell with paper towels until it's bone dry. Do like Traviz said and put the gasket on the pan, and stick all the bolts thru. The FelPro gasket makes all of the gasket's bolt holes small so every hole will "hug" a bolt. Cheaper gaskets usually just leave you one hole in each corner.

Slide under the car with the pan/gasket/bolt setup. Don't bring the pan near the trans yet tho! More paper towels; "blot" the bottom of the valve body (cast-iron-looking-thing you see with the trans pan off) so no trans fluid drips. Keep wiping the gasket mating surface on the trans so there's no fluid on it- no drips or runs- keep changing the paper towel until it's "dry". Then Quickly and Without Getting Fluid On The Gasket, mate the pan up to the trans and spin a few bolts in by hand. Then quickly do all the other bolts in a crossing pattern to help seat the gasket. Don't just do the bolts in a circle shape; do a star-shape (like you were tightening lugnuts). Like Apeiron mentioned, the max torque for those trans bolts is ONLY 15 ft/lbs, don't overtighten them, that's a steel bolt into aluminum threads and too much tightening will tear the aluminum threads out.

Oh and a spray brake cleaner is great for (a) cleaning out the trans pan of trans fluid residue and (b) cleaning the garage floor of trans fluid.

 

Thanks for all the help guys - I did the install this afternoon, took her for a spin and haven't seen any leaks yet.

Just as a note to anyone searching the threads, the Fram kit I bought came with a cork gasket that had the bolt holes slightly smaller for all the holes, which made it really easy.

I just hope the cork holds up fine, or else I have to do it again.

No mess either - then again, the pan I used to let the fluid drain into was 6" bigger all around than the tranny pan itself