Thursday, June 09, 2005
Two Out of Three Ain't Bad
I am getting near the 100,000 mile mark on my Monte Carlo and it was time for some routine maintenance. The book calls for a transmission fluid and filter change, along with plugs and wires. The local dealer also recommended changing the fuel filter (now that car designers have pulled their heads back out of their derriere the fuel filter is back inline and accessible rather than in the tank). I've already done the plugs and wires so a quick trip to AutoZone and I was setup for an oil and filter change, transmission fluid and filter change, and fuel filter change.
The oil was easy, I do this one myself all of the time.
The transmission was not difficult, just tedious. Transmission pans do not have drain plugs so you have to take out some of the bolts on one corner, then loosen the rest of the bolts, have a big catch container handy, and hope for the best. The two dozen bolts that hold this pan on make it all less than fun. I managed to get the pan off without a hitch. The filter on this is significantly different than the old Torqueflite 727's I'm used to working on. When I pulled it off I broke off the little plastic inlet snout and managed to get quite a bit of transmission fluid on my head (Dexron III with Mercon does not make a good hair gel, all of you guys that do your own shopping at the Banana Republic should know this though). The filter also came with a new seal. I pulled the old one out with pliers and knocked the new one in with a deep well 3/4 inch socket and a dead blow hammer. I cleaned out the pan and reused the two part gasket rather than using the new, but inferior, cork gasket. I put the pan back up, cranked down the bolts to 120 in-lbs using the recommended pattern, dropped the car off the jack stands, put new fluid in, started it up, and ran it through the gears. I let the car warm up, checked the fluid again, then took it out for a test drive, and all was good.
It was, unfortunately kind of late, so I gave up on getting the fuel filter in for the evening. Automatic transmission fluid does not wash out of hair well so I knew I had a long shower in front of me and still wanted to get some work done for the company before calling it a night. So I got two out of the three issues taken care of. Not too bad considering I've never done two of them on this car.
The oil was easy, I do this one myself all of the time.
The transmission was not difficult, just tedious. Transmission pans do not have drain plugs so you have to take out some of the bolts on one corner, then loosen the rest of the bolts, have a big catch container handy, and hope for the best. The two dozen bolts that hold this pan on make it all less than fun. I managed to get the pan off without a hitch. The filter on this is significantly different than the old Torqueflite 727's I'm used to working on. When I pulled it off I broke off the little plastic inlet snout and managed to get quite a bit of transmission fluid on my head (Dexron III with Mercon does not make a good hair gel, all of you guys that do your own shopping at the Banana Republic should know this though). The filter also came with a new seal. I pulled the old one out with pliers and knocked the new one in with a deep well 3/4 inch socket and a dead blow hammer. I cleaned out the pan and reused the two part gasket rather than using the new, but inferior, cork gasket. I put the pan back up, cranked down the bolts to 120 in-lbs using the recommended pattern, dropped the car off the jack stands, put new fluid in, started it up, and ran it through the gears. I let the car warm up, checked the fluid again, then took it out for a test drive, and all was good.
It was, unfortunately kind of late, so I gave up on getting the fuel filter in for the evening. Automatic transmission fluid does not wash out of hair well so I knew I had a long shower in front of me and still wanted to get some work done for the company before calling it a night. So I got two out of the three issues taken care of. Not too bad considering I've never done two of them on this car.
# posted by chilort @ 10:53 PM 
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Finished off the fuel filter this morning. Easy as pie. Now I should be all finished up until 150k miles where I must flush the cooling system. Wooh.
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