No luck siphoning Auto Trans- any tips?

[UncleS2]

Todfay I bought plenty of 1/4" id- 3/8" od white plastic tubing, & tried siphoning out the Dakota's auto trans through the dipstick hole. It seems to be badly overfilled, really wanted this to work. At best, I drew up about a 15-18" section of tubnig worth of fluid, then never got any more.
Fluid was warm but not real hot.

Those of you who have done this before successfully- any tips? Maybe a smaller diameter tubing? Is it better to have the moror running or shut off? Any help appreciated.

 

[SZR48207]

Are you using a stiff tube? You may need flexible vinyl hose depending on how the dip stick is set up on your transmission. Also, how are you pumping out the fluid?

AutoZone sells a $3 hand pump kit with a 1/4" ID tube that works well for jobs like this. Takes a while to remove even half a quart, but works if you're diligent.

 

[Nayov]

I've used a wet-dry vac successfully many times for this. Just jam the tubing in the hose and duct tape it closed to seal the air flow. Watch out b/c a lot of oil will be sucked out in short order.

 

[demarpaint]

I use a suction pump that looks like a grease gun, they are cheap and work great. I can pull about 2 qts of ATF via the fill tube with no problem or mess.

 

[ProStreetCamaro]

I am really surprised very few people use oil extractors. I use mine ALL the time!

 

[Eddie]

I use a flexable 10 foot length of clear tubing (1/4 or 3/16 ID). I push the tubing in and suck hard to get fluid to almost the full length of the tube before draining into a bottle on the floor. Plan on an hour or two to complete the drain. Warm the fluid by driving helps. I use two two gallon milk bottles. I put the same amount of new fluid in as I drained out. Never had a problem.

 

[UncleS2]

OK- you can always count on the BITOGers!

Eddie- I tried the "midnight credit card" method myself- but could never get more than about 18" of hose full. Looks like it's gonna take something with constant strong suction/vacuum to do it, & it's apparent I ain't supplyin' enough.

My old suction gun ain't cuttin' it iether, the hose required seems to be too long for it- & I greased the rubber plunger in it too. Rats.

I have a cheap little hand siphon pump from Harbor Freight, bought years ago- even with the pump plunger lubed it still won't do anything. I shouldn' be surprised, it never worked worth a hoot for me on anything before!

Shop vac-

now *That's* something I never thought of- and I just may try it. But, late last night was bitten by...

Oil Extractor- Funny you should mention that(imagine, the perfect tool for the job!). Was thinking how I plan to
do at least 3 transmission siphon & refills with the truck, plus pwr steering(turkey baster only reaches about 3-4 oz of fluid, already tried that), plus rear end, maybe even use for coolant- and how much anyone would charge me to do any of this- and maybe screw things up as well as take my $$! It could easily make $50 -$100 look like chump change in no time flat, and I'd still have nothing that allowed me to do it easily myself. SO- went looking for oil extractors/fluid evacuators/ whatever you want to call 'em. Pretty quickly narrowed things down to Pela, MityVac, & Moeller for brands- neg comments convinced me to avoid the Pela sphere models(don't have 3 hands)- & finally settled on a MityVac 7400, 7.x L capacity(I forget .what), ordered off Amazon for just under $54 shipped- best price I found anywhere on the Inet by more than $10, & beats O'Reillys by more than $40. Probably lots more than they used to cost, but $53.xx total looks good compared to the competition I found.

I'm so busy for the next week won't be able to go anywhere except the local daily stuff anyway- So when it arrives I'll find out just how much fluid one CAN siphon from an overfilled Dodge 42RE automatic transmission.

Thanks for all the help! (that shop vac/tubing/duct tape idea- are you really an evil genius in disguise?

)

 

[Mr_Incredible]

I use a shop vac, length of tubing, and a steel 5gal bucket w/steel lid.

I have a vent hole I punched in the top of the bucket and I jam one end of the tubing into it a couple of inches. I then place the shop vac hose over the larger spout of the bucket lid. Turn on the shop vac and stick the working end of the length of tubing into whatever fluid you want to suck out. Works good for tranny fluid, brake fluid, PS fluid, etc. It doesn't work well with bleeding brakes. Just clearing out the master cylider before working on it.

Tranny fluid will obviously work better when it's hot and thin.

 

[bigmike]

I overfilled my AT by about 1/2 quart before. I just pulled the cooler line and used a clear hose plus hose clamp. Turn engine on for about 3 seconds, shut off, and 1/2 quart is drained. Takes about 5 minutes to put everything back.

 

[hsd]

I use the vacuum from the engine manifold to pull out fluids. 29" Hg even pulls out differential fluid quickly. Obviously on ATF removal you want to hook the vacuum hose up to a different vehicle. I use a 1/2 gallon glass jar to collect the ATF so I can see whats coming out. The jar lid has 2 snug fitting holes, one for the 1/4" ATF hose and one for vacuum hose.