Check this out! Was a complete dumbass and ended up draining the tranny of all of its fluid before I tried getting the fill plug out. Ended up using a closed end wrench for better leverage whilst trying to get the fill plug out, and my wrench (thankfully nothing hurt me) broke like this!


I am going to try and apply some heat to the bolt with a hair dryer on max heat then I am going to use a can of compressed air and freeze the head of the bolt and try it again later tonight. Once that bugger comes off, I will be able to fill her up again and drive! I will be more careful in the future for sure. Either someone overcranked this plug to the MAX - or it has never been taken off of the car in its entire life. It is IN there.

 

Correct me if i'm wrong but, i believe the ZF transmission fill plugs in our cars take a an ALAN key to remove,
I'm not sure what you are trying to take off but I don't believe that is the fill plug.

 

Yup - check this out :

https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/xk-xkr-x150-33/6hp26-transmission-service-2007-xkr-155883/

"to access that stupid fill plug. Insert your hex socket and universal joint with an extension"

 

The way OP's post is worded, and the way the ring spanner broke, has me thinking the spanner was being used to extend the allen key.

 

Pretty sure I read in another thread ‘be sure you can remove the fill plug before draining the transmission’. Now I see why.
Good luck!

 

I removed my fill plug with the gearbox out of the XK a week or so ago and used a breaker bar with the 8mm Allen hex socket drive as it was in so tight from the factory. If I had been doing that with the gearbox in the car I would have struggled as there is not enough space between the plug and the bodywork to use a socket drive, even with a universal joint.

Remove the heat shield as this helps and you can remove the shield without lowering the rear end of the gearbox. If removing the heat shield is not sufficient then lowering the rear of the gearbox would be my next approach. Removing the catalytic converter would also help but having done that to remove the gearbox, I would suggest you don't go down that route.

The best tool which easily fits the space and does not need any gearbox lowering, uses the socket set 8mm Allen bit and can take a lot of force with a large ring spanner and which worked well for me when tightening the plug back after filling is one of these shown below. You can get some serious force through this and extend the ring spanner with a pipe, or whatever, as necessary.

Richard

 

Correct! I was using this closed end wrench as a leverage tool. I still had the 8mm ALAN/hex key inserted into the fill plug. Sorry for wording. Yeah, but just crazy leverage and wanted to share.

 

This is nice! I am definitely going to look into that. Thank you for the suggestion. I am probably going to chop the exhaust at the base of the catalytic converter, and down another 12 or so inches so that there won't be any pipe in the way of the fill plug. I will then be able to place an ALAN/Hex key into the fill plug and use a real and proper breaker bar. Or use a socket, or literally anything that I couldn't use with the pipe in the way. Weld the 12 or so inch pipe back into place as if it was never taken off. If that does not work, yeah probably going to just drill it out or nipple extract it or something, not sure. Car wouldn't have been moving regardless if I did the drain first or not, luckily.

 

That's probably not a bad idea regarding heating the aluminum casing.

 

Ended up having to drop the exhaust on the right side to get proper torque on the ALAN/hex key for the fill plug. Oil hasn't been changed in the diff or the tranny since day 1! 100k miles. 160k KM. Got the plug out, replaced the old 17-18 year old fluid + oil pan with new ZF 6 fluid - and I am happy to report ZERO (0) LURCHING and ZERO (0) HARD SHIFT ISSUES - all transmission issues have been resolved and the disgusting fluid was 100% the culprit.

edit// Yes, I am going to do 1-2 more flushes the same way I did it the first time. Going to try and dilute as much of the ATF with the new stuff as best as I can, NOW that I can take the damn fill plug out! lol

 

Be sure to change the transmission valve body seal/adapter next time you have the pan off, those crack with age and heat.

 

"Be sure to change the transmission valve body seal/adapter next time you have the pan off, those crack with age and heat."

Any symptoms of the seal/adapter failing?

 

It's often referred to as the mechatronics sleeve. As the rubber on the O-rings ages, auto fluid begins to seep past and the back end of the gearbox and under the electrical connector gets covered with fluid. The sleeve is often included with many of the refurb kits. It's literally a 2 minute job to change it whilst the gearbox pan is off. I changed one a couple of weeks ago as it was clearly leaking but that was the first I've seen which was that bad.

Richard

 

The sleeve is important as well, but I was not referring to the sleeve.
Symptoms of cracked seal is shifts that flare or are slow, or slippage.

I'm referring to the seal that the valve body attaches to the transmission with,
if this cracks you will have poor shift quality and if it fails completely the transmission will slip.


Valve body seal left, mechatronics sleeve right

 

Ah, I see. I've never changed that seal and never needed to. Personally, I wouldn't choose to unbolt the valve body unless there were actually problems with the shifting before I started the work.

Richard

 

Good job on getting plug out. On my car 06 str has same fill plug location. The first time i took it out i bought a nice 8mm allen for 25 bucks then sharply cut a bit off so the bend was nearer the plug and used a 12 inch cheater with the car on stands. When it broke loose it sounded like a .44. The sharper edges and shorter bend to plug made the difference. What a peach design huh. Right next to the exhaust. Again well done