Applying Torque to the Transmission Pan Screws

[Ramjet Roger]

Be careful about general advice on trans pan bolts torque. I have had very bad experiences using a torque wrench and following specs in the manual. Broke several bolts. One time the darn Haynes manual had 20 ft/lbs listed when it was supposed to be 105 inch/lbs. On my 05 Ram, the manual specs torque at the limit of the bolts 10 ft/lbs on a 10.8 M6x1.25 bolt. Sure enough, some broken bolts. Nowadays, whenever I'm dealing with M6-M8, and sometimes even M10, into aluminum housing, I double check with the max torque specs for the fastener. This information is usually in the front of most service manuals. And, then I back off 10%-20%. A little seepage is better then just one broken bolt.

 

[PT1]

I do the maintenance on my Harley Davidson motorcycle which requires a torque wrench on everything because of the inherent heavy vibration the V-twin engine produces. Watch Sears around the holidays as they sell the nice dial up torque wrenches for $69-75 on sale. One note: if you get them be sure to unwind the setting to zero when you put them away. I love my torque wrenches and use them on everything that holds fluid. Never a leak by gluing gaskets on with permatex hi-tack and evenly torqueing the fasteners on. Once you get one...you'll never go back to "feel". Note: I also use loctite thread locker on every fluid application as well.....except the drain bolts.