Am I stupid or what???

[zogg]

:roll:Modesty aside, I am a pretty good mechanic. So, I thought it would be a good idea to change the tranny fuild and filter in my "new" 97 Explorer.

I loosen the bolts, drain most of the fluid, take out all the bolts, and the dammm pan will not come out of the truck. For over an hour, I tried to move it in every direction, and bent a vent pipe out of the way for clearance....I could not believe I was having all of this trouble.

So, I grabed my new Haines manual and it sid to unbolt the pan and drop it....well, crap, it won't come out.

It looks like I need to remove the rear transmission cross member....I only need about 3/4 of an inch clearance....I could not believe it!!

So, I would up sliding the pan as far as I could to the drivers side, and tilted it upward....it gave just barely enough room to get a wrench on the filter bolt, so I was able to change the filter. Fortunately, it had a rubber gasket on the pan, which came right off so I crammed the new gasket onto the pan and held it in plase with a couple of bolts until I got it back on. I was able to reach the magnet and wipe out the gunk in the pan....looks like it had been changed before.

So, a 45 minute job took about two and one half hours all over about 3/4 inch of lacknog clearance....

Am I just plain stupid, or is there something else I was supposed to do????

Fortunately, everything went back together ok, with no leaks and the tranny shifts perfectly.

What am I missing??? This can't be the design of a sane Ford engineer....ugh!!!:roll::roll::roll:

 

[jlsparky7]

Engineers arn't mechanics ;-)

 

[dogfriend]

This can't be the design of a sane Ford engineer....ugh!!!

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

Good one. :

 

[robertoa1a]

I would be nice to have a drain plug welded to it. I owned a Rodeo and EVERYTHING on it was near imposable to work on. Parts were expensive if you could find them at all. The Ford is a dream to work on compared to that.

It seams like you would be able to jack the back of the engine up a little to gain a little space.

 

[Runnin'OnEmpty]

Hey Zogg, I see you've got a 4x4. If I'm not mistaken,
one end of the front driveshaft has to be unbolted and
moved out of the way. Take a look and see if that will
gain enough access for pan removal.....?


This can't be the design of a sane Ford engineer....ugh!!!

Sane Ford engineer....? Isn't that an oxymoron?

 

[dogfriend]

Actually, I was able to drop the trans pan without dropping the driveshaft, but I have the OHV engine. I think the SOHC is worse because of the exhaust routing. I do know that it is virtually impossible to drop the pan without making a mess because there is not a drain plug in the pan. There are several threads devoted to adding one. My GF's motorhome (4R100) has a drain plug and it makes the job much easier and less messy.

 

[97xlt4.0]

I know on my '97 SOHC, I found it to be much easier to unbolt the front driveshaft and move it out of the way. Somehow, I did get the pan to drop on its own, after covering me and the helper in tranny fluid, though! EDIT- I got the pan to drop on its own, PRIOR to removing the driveshaft.

Engineers just make it look pretty on paper....

 

[IZwack]

"yo i aint stupid im just doopid"

[/hijack]

 

[chapsdeva]

Word to ya motha.............

 

[corkey]

he he he,, i couldn't help it,, ,

 

[corkey]

k, now for the serious post, ,

glad you got it done,
and thanks for sharing with the rest , so we know what it takes to do this job,,

disregard previous , i am only joking, ,

 

[4X4Boy]

"yo i aint stupid im just doopid"

[/hijack]

it's kinda crazy seeing this. I was just telling a friend that he came to a small town bar not too far from me to perform. I had to go see him, not cuz I like him or support him but to mock most of the people that thought he was cool and they were cool cuz of who he is...

lets just say it's a big low for someone to even go to this place let alone it's a bunch of "no one's" that perform there. LOL

 

[chance942]

Actually, I was able to drop the trans pan without dropping the driveshaft, but I have the OHV engine. I think the SOHC is worse because of the exhaust routing. I do know that it is virtually impossible to drop the pan without making a mess because there is not a drain plug in the pan. There are several threads devoted to adding one. My GF's motorhome (4R100) has a drain plug and it makes the job much easier and less messy.

You are correct about the routing. On my 2000 sport I remove the left cat and it is much cleaner and easier. I believe with a deep pan it is impossible to do it right without removing it. It is a PITA the first time but once you have your aft nut/bolt set how you want it future removal is easy and you have unostrubcted access to the pan,VB,etc.

 

[zogg]

The biggest issue is, of course, that the catalytic converter is directly underneath the transmission pan....it concerns me that there is no heat shield on this converter as it is got to be heating up the transmission fluid....

 

[chance942]

Yeah no doubt. And another one on the side. Seems designed to fail. I've pondered wrapping them both in heat tape and running a bigger cooler but... I just run the deep pan and keep a close eye on the fluid. What else can ya do? In my state I could just remove them and I have considered doing that too. Maybe if the rig runs long enough to fill em I will. I'm not at all impressed with the design on the ohc engine AT ALL and the exhaust well speaks for itself. I'll always be a Ford truck man but honestly I'm disappointed with this rig. Seems like evertime you fix something a month goes by and there is another issue. I wouldn't be so heated if I didn't have to depend on it as a DD right now and have some time to apply some of my better ideas!

My 91 4 runner ran to 250k before it started to show any problems. I had Rocky Mountain pinstripes all over that thing and other than routine maintenance it was a rock. Heck it was even the 3.0 6 and not a 22re. My wife drives the Ford because it was a nice color and I get the headaches. I'm not alone here.