Heh!
This is the
exact reason I came to this board. I am fairly handy in the world of carburetion, but I don't feel as comfortable in the world of electronically - controlled car systems.
Here's been my experiences:
Differentials - The manuals say that you don't have to change them unless you've been in water up to the axles, or tow. I think that's a plot for us to buy more differentials. lol
Rear diff - pain in the ass. The drain plug is a square hole bigger than anything in a normal socket set. (I took a picture, if you want to see, I'll upload it to my bucket account and show you.)
My brother came up with a genius idea, he ground two points off of a giant 3/4" bolt, and using vise-grips snapped into a set of flats he ground on the shaft, we were able to break the plug loose.
The one we were working on was a 2005. Clean underneath, but the plug looked like it had galvanic corrosion or pipe dope or something on it. Dunno. After that, drain the old crap out, plug up, and refill. My Ford service manual, and my owners' manual says 75w140. $14 a bottle, I needed about one and a third.
According to my research (take that as you will), the main difference between the two is that the 75 has added crap in it that makes it work better. The 80w90 works fine if you replace often. They say. I splurged and bought the good stuff, it sounds like cheap insurance to me.
Weird thing - the service manual said to unbolt a top bolt on the diff, and add a pint over the level of the fill hole. I couldn't find any threads on here that said that, and we both couldn't find the bolt the manual referenced.
So, I bought a tube from the local place, has an on/off valve. Screwed that onto the grease jug, and squirted it into the fill hole. Brother uses two pieces of hose, wedge one into another, wedge the bigger one into the grease bottle. We decided the store bought one was better. (3.5 pints / 1.7 L)
Front diff - you gotta buy a tool called a suction gun. Mine was around ten bucks, and came with a rigid plastic tube. Brother Damon (again) found some silicone 3/8ths inch surgical tubing 5-6 feet long. Crammed that into the fill plug, slowly pulled the plunger out, and out came the oil/grease. Took off the suction tool, pushed the plunger in, reattached, and pulled the plunger again. Tube filled up, reversed the process and blew it out into the oil bucket. Refill was like for the rear. (1.8 qts)
Transfer case - Very, very easy. If you can wedge yourself under there, and can yank on a socket wrench, you can do this. It's about center of the vehicle, past the transmission. There are two plugs, both have a square hole. You just stick the socket wrench in there, and carefully yank. Drains out, you hafta wait forever to stop dripping. Put the bottom plug back in. Use the tube doodad to put some Mercon V in there (be sure you clean it out between oils/greases). When it starts to weep out the fill hole, you're done. 1.5 qts according to the manuals.
Fuel filter - geeze, THAT one sucked. Muchly. It is hidden about four inches away from the passenger side catalytic converter. Why you would put fuel (and a plastic gas tank) next to a cat is beyond me, but I'm not an automotive engineer. They hide the filter behind not one, but TWO shields, one metal, and one plastic. I think the first needs a 13mm socket (around there), and the second around a 10mm.
Once you get to the filter (I have a picture for reference, not a good one, but I'll share), you have to remove a metal clip on the right side, and a red clip on the left side. I learned you should pop the red clip very, very last, that's where the gas shower comes from. Anyway, after the metal clip comes off, allegedly you push this circular tool into the fitting and voila, it pops loose. The metal fuel line disconnect tool didn't work worth a crap. We wound up using a hemostat to squeeze the jaws of the tool together, then it seemed to work.
When you pop that left side loose, then you can take the filter out. The bracket acts as if it is welded onto the filter, however, I learned it is simply a piece of spring steel that grips the filter like a *****.
If you forget (i did), the bolt holes face down, and the crimped end of the filter points towards the drivers' side.
Back together is much simpler.
Next up, I figure out where everything gets greased.....
Hope this helps, and I am learning on this vehicle, so I may not be telling you correctly. It did, however, result in a 5 MPG increase instantly. So, it was definately worth the effort and mess!
-Shawn
