Weekend fun

[gr8scott]

I worked both Sunday afternoon and a good part of Monday on the EX just doing some mantenience stuff.

Things I did:
-plugs and wires. I thought, from reading on here, that this was going to be very difficult and time consuming. I finished the plugs and wires without incident in about an hour. I have the OHV. Maybe the difficult one is the SOHC? Anyways, the plugs where due for a change as most of the plugs' gaps where out to about 0.070" and 2 of them where all the way out to 0.080". Immediately noticed that the EX ran better with the new plugs and wires.

-Transmission filter & fluid. This is something I have never done as I have almost always owned 5 speed vehicles. Was pretty straigt forward but very messy. Replaced fluid with Castrol Mecron IV (sp?) fluid and 1 quart of Lucas Transmission Treatment.

-Bled Brake fluid. Got my wife to help me with this one. Used a turkey baister to get as much old fluid out of the res before I added new Valvoline Synthetic fluid then bled all 4 brakes and also bled the one that is right under the res. Went through about 30-35 ozs of fluid to get it all clear.

-Flushed coolant. Used that prestone flushing kit that you hook up to your heater hose and then hook the garden hose up and flush all the old coolant out. Refilled with Dexcool. Also cleaned out overfill tank and refilled with Dexcool.

-Drained rear dif. Took the rear cover off the rear differential and let it all drain. Cleaned cover and sealing surface, made new gasket with some Ultra Gray, bolted it back up, and filled it with Mobile 1 synthetic gear oil.

-Somewhat of a Power Steering flush. I didn't really flush it all the way. I just got out as much as I could with a turkey baister (About 10 oz) and put that much new fluid back in. Ran the steering wheel back and forth a few times (with engine running) and then repeated the process. The last 2 times I did it, I used 12 oz of Lucas Power Steering Treatment.

Things I didn't get to:
-I bought a Wix fuel filter but didn't get it on as I guess you need some kind of special tool? I think my boss has it here. I'll get him to show me how.

-I bought a Goodyear Gatorback serpentine belt but wanted to also put a new tensioner on at the same time. I didn't have the tensioner until today. The tensioner was $31 at the Ford dealership.

-I want to put a new PCV valve on but I forgot to buy that when I was at the dealership.

-I also want to repack the front wheel bearings but was too tired to do anything else yesterday.

I feel really good about the EX now and it is driving great. I hope to break the 20 mpg mark this next tank. We got 18 mpg on the first tank and 19 on the second tank before I did any of these things.

 

[bender]

nice work...my bro brought his 96 in and we did some major efforts on it as well. his vehicle has 164,000 miles on it.
-touched up the many large rock chips on the hood
-touched up quarter panel chipped/rusted finish
-cleaned/reoiled/reinstalled k&n air filter
-recharged AC
-cleaned battery terminals
-painted front and rear wiper arms
-clay barred and waxed entire thing
-took it for oil and a tranny flush today to complete the mission.

 

[xman98]

wow thats one heck of a list gr8scott. props! for getiing all that done.

 

[ExporeRanger]

awesome..got any tips or step by steps for some of the more invovled stuff like the gear oil and stuff

 

[gr8scott]

awesome..got any tips or step by steps for some of the more invovled stuff like the gear oil and stuff

That was the one I was afraid of. I have changed the fluid in the rear dif in our Infiniti J30 but it has a drain plug and a fill plug. But I decided to go ahead and tackle this one.

As always, you should make sure you can get the fill plug loose before you drain the fluid from the unit as it would be hard to put fluid back in later.

The fill plug came off after a good grunt and a half pull. It was located on the front of the dif towards the top.

All the bolts holding the cover came off with no problems. I took all the bolts out except 1 at the top of the cover. Then I gently pried the bottom of the cover open just a little and let all the fluid drain out. I did find out that with the car jacked up in the rear, (I had it on my custom made 2"x8" car ramps) that the fluid would start to drain with just the fill plug removed and that all the fluid would not come out until I rolled it down the ramps. It would've been so much easier to do at work where I have access to a lift. Oh, well.

Once the cover was loose, I used brake cleaner and sprayed it all down and rubbed all the old gasket off. Clean off the gasket surface on the differential also. Then I made one bead of silicon (Ultra Gray) all the way around the cover just inside the bolt holes and just barely smoothed it out with my finger, just enuf to make the line consistant.

Carefully put the cover back on the dif and start putting the bolts back on. Don't forget to put the info tag back on one of the bolts. There was an order to tighten them down in the Haynes manual that I bought. Basically, you just criss-cross around the cover until they are all tight.

I bought a cheap oil pump that screws onto the gear oil bottle. The only problem is that it was made for a regular oil quart bottle and didn't reach to the bottom of the gear oil bottle. I ended up pouring the left-over gear oil into a reg quart bottle and then pumped the rest into the dif.

Put the fill plug back on and you're done.

 

[aldive]

Replaced fluid with Castrol Mecron IV (sp?) fluid

Doesen't your tranny call for Mercron V spec ATF?

 

[gr8scott]

Doesen't your tranny call for Mercron V spec ATF?

That's what I meant to write. It's the V not IV.

 

[ExporeRanger]

how bout the trans fluid?..

thanks by the way for the other lil details..

 

[gr8scott]

how bout the trans fluid?..

thanks by the way for the other lil details..

The Tanny fluid was actually pretty easy but messy. The only real hard part was that stupid heat shield beside the cat on the exhaust. It clips onto the side of tranny and you just have to pull it off. The problem is that there isn't enuf room to just slide it straight off the side. You just have to wrestle with it until it is above the tranny pan.

Then just start unbolting the tranny pan bolts and once most of them are loose the tranny fluid will start draining out. (The messy part) It's a little messy at first because the pan is bigger than my catch pan was. I then took out all the bolts except the ones on the front so the pan would hang down toward the back and finish draining.

Then I took the other bolts off and carefully lowered the pan as it still had fluid in it. Once off, I pored the rest out then started cleaning the tranny pan. Cleaned the magnet off. It was covered in a grey puddy-like slime. Then I used brake cleaner to spray the rest of the pan.

The filter comes off with just one bolt. (10mm iirc) The new filter came with 2 sets of o-rings. I looked at the one that came off and put that size o-rings back on then bolted the new filter on.

I was wondering how I was going to get the gasket back on as it doesn't want to lay flat. What I figured out was that I could take the bolts and put them through the bottom of the pan holes and put the gasket on top of the pan and push the screws through just enuf to hold the gasket in place. I did this with all the screws and that held the gasket just fine.

Then I just bolted all the screws back on and then wrestled with the heat shield again to get it back in place. It was actually harder getting it back on then it was taking it off.

I filled the tranny first with a bottle of lucas tranny treatment and then cut the bottom of that bottle off and used it as a funnel. I put 2 more quarts of fluid back in and then cranked it up and ran it at a fast idle for a minute or so. Then ran through all the gears a few times and checked the fluid level. I think I ended up adding a total of 4 quarts iirc.

Took it for a test drive, (drove great) and then checked it one more time.