Completed the last fluid change on my Jag. Used the forum procedure if drain, measure, replace measured amount, start engine 14 seconds, repeat. First drain was very burnt smelling with another odor very similar to "stagnant water" smell. Like swamp or what we call in the West "drain ditch" water and it was as thin as water coming out.




1st drain distance and close-up


2nd drain close-up




3rd drain distance and close-up




4th drain distance and close-up.
Before change transmission was pretty smooth with a noticeable constant increase in speed of a shift from 2nd to 3rd very close together. Was not spaced out. When stopping the downshift from OD, 4, 3 was smooth but 2nd and 1st had a fairly noticeable hard downshift. After fluid change all of this was gone.

 

Took right at 3 hours (rubber bung in and out each drain/fill was fun) for 4 drains and 5th fill. Just my opinion, but the drain, fill, run 14 seconds just made more sense to me vs. The drain fill, drive a day. Not in any way proof, but I just felt less of the very old fluid was going to mix with the new doing it this way. Kinda thinking old out the bottom, new on top forcing old out ahead of it. (Shrugs).

 

1st = 14 cups. 2nd = 14 cups. 3rd = 14 1/2 cups. 4th = 15 cups. I admit to filling the 5th time (after 4th drain of 15 cups), to using 15 1/3 cups, who the frak knows if it is low, figured a 1/3 cup would not be fatal as an overfill.

 

Nice job
What type of new fluid did you decide to use? Thank you

 

Is there a picture of the drain plug you might have? I have never done this before and I hear that some people have undone the wrong bolt and lost their reverse gear? I know where the fill plug is, the oil drain plug, and the gearbox drain plug...but not the tranny drain plug.

Otherwise...nice job and post. This will come in useful for many of us. I think (just myself) the only issues is knowing if your tranny has the right amount of fluid in it when you start. I hear there is a fluid level check plug somewhere but also that it is a pain in the *** the check it there?

peace out,
daddylogan

 

Jatco 506E transmission drain plug

The reference you may have heard of on "drain plug" is really the one on the rear of the transmission to check the fill level. That is the one that some (even transmission shops) have mistaken or mixed up the check level plug and the bolt holding reverse spring in place. I decided to drain, measure, replace with measured back in and not even go near that fill check level plug. Thus my comment on using 1/3 of a cup extra on the last fill, and figured it would not cause a problematic over fill. Because who the heck knows if your Cat is a bit low or even a quart low to begin with?

 

I used Castrol IMPORT (Note this) Multi-Vehicle ATF. I say note this, because Castrol also make a multi-vehicle that is not IMPORT. There is a current post right now on "over thinking; atf, where it discusses specs/types.

 

Dell,
How many miles were on that oil? I have the original oil in the car with 60,000 miles or so. I need to do it. I know some shops claim they have a pressure system that flushes the system completely and then replace with new.

 

134,000 miles. Sure it's why it smelled so bad and was so thin.

 

I had only about a year with my X Type, but I recommend you not seek out a pressure flush with this transmission. Do the 3X drain/fill and you'll be fine. Hint: turkey baster tube was the bee's knees for me. Search for my DIY and you'll see why.

 

YES!! As per your post Swingwing, on another thread, I bought a cheap turkey baster to put into the fill pipe (wrapped in paper towel = you'll see why as Swing said). Then regular funnel into that, leaving a clear "sight line" on the front side of the car to watch the baster fill up so as not to overspill (much) from the baster. Plus the length makes it nice to put down into the fill pipe from above without struggling. Now the damn rubber bung in and out is a whole new frustration. I use the Hill Air Force Base Hobby Shop, where any and all tools are available and they had an incredibly long pair of needle nose pliers that were brand new with really good "grip" grooves on the tips to hold the bung going in/out without slipping off. My pair were worn and kept slipping off when squeezing the handles.

 

I pulled that rubber bung out bt slipping my hand down between the battery box and motor and sorta finger-danced it out between my pointer finger and middle finger.

The turkey baster is the bees knees (thanks, SwingWing!) and I wrapped it in a shop rag so it was lightly wedged between battery box and motor before sticking the funnel in it.

I used aluminum roasting pans from the dollar store for drain pans. (3 of them)

Also used the Castrol Import Multi-vehicle.

Opened a gallon, poured out a half quart (measured).
Drain trans
Pull bung, add SwingWing Plumbing (TM) and pour in the remaining 3 and a half quarts from the first gallon.
Pour the waste oil from the dollar store pan into the (now empty) gallon container.
Replace bung, drive it around the block.

Repeat.

Seriously...if you FIRST spend a couple minutes working out how to get that bung out and back in, this whole procedure becomes MUCH easier.
I have a short piece of conduit that the head of the bung fits in pretty snug. I can pop it in the conduit, slide it down into place and then push a wooden dowel down the conduit like a ramrod to hold the bung in place while I pull the conduit off of it. I call it my bung injector

 

I tried the hand thing. Car was still pretty warm from driving it up on Base. Stuck my neoprened hand down to remove the bung & didn't feel the cooking back of my hand until too late. Actually melted the glove = lesson learned, give me the long needle nosed pliers and some burn salve.

 

Nice job guys. That conduit and dowel trick sounds really cool to reseat the rubber plug and I may try that next time. I used Castrol Import Multi transfluid also.

 

So, I have a few days on the new fluid. After differential, oil, and transfer case fluid change, car was quite a bit quieter (it was never very loud = humming, etc., but not really noticeable). With the transmission fluid change, I have noticed improved up and down shifting and believe it or not it's even more quiet. On a real smooth road, all I can hear is the tire noise a little.

Now next project (& not looking forward to it), is front swing arms, dealer said 1 is leaking. No mechanical problem, but I took a look while on the rack & the rubber on back side as well as around the ball joints is looking pretty stiff and worn and I have developed a small squeak on left side when slowly going over a speed bump.

 

Squeak could also come from the ball joint that's on the control arm. See them three rivets? 'Purt easy to drill those out and replace the ball joint but Noooo....your only choice is the whole arm.

 

So the "forum method" is basically drain then measure then add, run the car for anywhere from 14 seconds to a day, and then do it three or more times ?

Is there another Link?

Your write up is great btw.

 

There are 2 "forum" methods. The drain, measure exactly what was drained, replace exact amount drained back through the original factory fill pipe = here is where there is a diversion of process. Some drive the car from around the block to a day/week and then repeat. The other process that a member came up with and tracked the sampling results of each drain to one using the first method (he was an engineer as I recall and retained samples, lol) was after filling start the car for 14 seconds, then repeat drain, measure, fill, etc. He verbally said the results were slightly better than the driving procedure (not mixing as much old fluid with new replacement).

I chose the latter as it did seem reasonable to me old out the bottom, new in the top more or less forcing the old out the bottom ahead of it. As pictured, my fourth drain was pretty much indistinguishable from new fluid used for the 5th fill. Not scientific by any means, but I felt good with the results and you can see the results and judge for yourselves.

 

I'll do the 14 sec method as you suggest, makes sense.

Thanks Dell.

 

Re replacing amount drained: What if level were low to start with? When I did mine I put in 3 1/2 quarts as recommended in another thread, which worked fine. There is another plug on the transmission used for checking fluid level, but I wasn't familiar enough with the car to find it.