91 F150, 130k miles, got it a couple months ago, still setting baselines.
Rockauto had a tranny filter kit for this truck and it E40D for $3 on clearance. I got it with some other stuff to save on shipping and said, well, we'll do this on a nice day. Also had ~10 quarts of leftover generic ATF.
I got something called "use or lose" at work that forced a vacation day so I said, perfect, with my 4 1/2 hours of daylight I'll get some stuff done around the house and the truck is on my list.
The old pan wasn't leaking and the truck shifted fine. It had every appearance of being well maintained. So I took all the bolts out of the pan and found the cork gasket tightly adhered to both surfaces. Stuffed a screwdriver in to pry it down, got it down, oil was nice and red... good sign. Since I wrecked the gasket by stuffing the screwdriver in, I peeled it off in 92 convenient chunks and cleaned the surfaces. No matter, I got a cheezy rubber gasket with the new filter.
The old filter came out but left its o-ring in the trans, so I figured I'd cut the o-ring off the new one and stuff it on in. Cut a line almost through the o-ring, removed it, then realized the existing one in the trans wouldn't play nice with the new filter. So I hacked the old one out. It had disintegrated almost into orange RTV. Not too happy since this is the "clean" side of the filter, but at least gravity was on my side. Carefully put the new (cut) o-ring on and sent it home. The cut sealed itself with the bore of the tranny. Phew.
Put it all together, threw 6 quarts of generic ATF in, drove to the dump, it drove great. Parked it and ate dinner. Walking the dog later I found a dinner plate sized pool of fluid on the ground. Well, nuts.
So this morning I went to the ford dealer at 0905, walked in the parts/ service door, not a soul to be seen. I could have robbed the place. Easily could have taken the fatso salesman. But instead I went to NAPA and got the premium filter kit with a metal-lined gasket with ribs for the princely sum of $47. Also hit Walmart for some more ATF since everyone else wanted $11 a quart. I had to haggle with the store b/c the online price was cheaper but came out on top. Came home, dropped the pan, changed out my filter, but this time the o-ring came out and was replaced with yet another new part, so I had that going for me. Couldn't figure out how the premium gasket was supposed to seal, but NAPA knew how, right?
Well, no.
The new gasket had an AWFUL fit, leaking from the back as the truck was up on ramps. I started kicking a few rocks then did research on replacement E40D pans. I'm theorizing that maybe someone overtorqued mine and the bolt holes are all divoted. (Though they look stamped that way as they're very uniform!) Moroso wanted $380 for an aluminum one. Waaaah!
Plus I'm trying to fix this with locally available parts on a Saturday before a holiday, and mail order/ amazon is way backlogged. Eventually I discover that the 4R100 pan has the same bolt pattern, and will work if someone gets the "long" filter for a 4x4 truck. Even better, it's got a drain plug, Advance has it in stock (Dorman 265-805), and there's a coupon! Sold! The filter came from a 2nd Advance on the way home.
Slap all this together with the NAPA gasket and long filter and I run out of fluid. But the stuff from my drain pan looked perfect. Absolutely perfect. So I did the BITOG sin and went "Mobil 2". Just a couple quarts! And now, reading BITOG, I discover Tractor Supply has ATF for 99 cents! FML! Had dinner, walked the dog, no leaks. Knocking on a forest full of wood.
Rockauto had a tranny filter kit for this truck and it E40D for $3 on clearance. I got it with some other stuff to save on shipping and said, well, we'll do this on a nice day. Also had ~10 quarts of leftover generic ATF.
I got something called "use or lose" at work that forced a vacation day so I said, perfect, with my 4 1/2 hours of daylight I'll get some stuff done around the house and the truck is on my list.
The old pan wasn't leaking and the truck shifted fine. It had every appearance of being well maintained. So I took all the bolts out of the pan and found the cork gasket tightly adhered to both surfaces. Stuffed a screwdriver in to pry it down, got it down, oil was nice and red... good sign. Since I wrecked the gasket by stuffing the screwdriver in, I peeled it off in 92 convenient chunks and cleaned the surfaces. No matter, I got a cheezy rubber gasket with the new filter.
The old filter came out but left its o-ring in the trans, so I figured I'd cut the o-ring off the new one and stuff it on in. Cut a line almost through the o-ring, removed it, then realized the existing one in the trans wouldn't play nice with the new filter. So I hacked the old one out. It had disintegrated almost into orange RTV. Not too happy since this is the "clean" side of the filter, but at least gravity was on my side. Carefully put the new (cut) o-ring on and sent it home. The cut sealed itself with the bore of the tranny. Phew.
Put it all together, threw 6 quarts of generic ATF in, drove to the dump, it drove great. Parked it and ate dinner. Walking the dog later I found a dinner plate sized pool of fluid on the ground. Well, nuts.
So this morning I went to the ford dealer at 0905, walked in the parts/ service door, not a soul to be seen. I could have robbed the place. Easily could have taken the fatso salesman. But instead I went to NAPA and got the premium filter kit with a metal-lined gasket with ribs for the princely sum of $47. Also hit Walmart for some more ATF since everyone else wanted $11 a quart. I had to haggle with the store b/c the online price was cheaper but came out on top. Came home, dropped the pan, changed out my filter, but this time the o-ring came out and was replaced with yet another new part, so I had that going for me. Couldn't figure out how the premium gasket was supposed to seal, but NAPA knew how, right?
Well, no.
The new gasket had an AWFUL fit, leaking from the back as the truck was up on ramps. I started kicking a few rocks then did research on replacement E40D pans. I'm theorizing that maybe someone overtorqued mine and the bolt holes are all divoted. (Though they look stamped that way as they're very uniform!) Moroso wanted $380 for an aluminum one. Waaaah!
Plus I'm trying to fix this with locally available parts on a Saturday before a holiday, and mail order/ amazon is way backlogged. Eventually I discover that the 4R100 pan has the same bolt pattern, and will work if someone gets the "long" filter for a 4x4 truck. Even better, it's got a drain plug, Advance has it in stock (Dorman 265-805), and there's a coupon! Sold! The filter came from a 2nd Advance on the way home.
Slap all this together with the NAPA gasket and long filter and I run out of fluid. But the stuff from my drain pan looked perfect. Absolutely perfect. So I did the BITOG sin and went "Mobil 2". Just a couple quarts! And now, reading BITOG, I discover Tractor Supply has ATF for 99 cents! FML! Had dinner, walked the dog, no leaks. Knocking on a forest full of wood.
