Trasmission fluid change? Myth?

[NetNinja]

Hey all.

After doing the 100K on my 94 ATX that has 140K.
I have discovered that my Transmission pan is leaking. I have tightend down the bolts but it seems to have a small leak.
Now this is a transmission that has never had the fluid replaced. I bought the SHO 4 years ago with 70k on it.
Is this some sort of urban myth that if you change the transmission fluid the transmission will start exhibiting problems?

 

[SHOstuff]

I haven't heard anything like that cause you do need to change your fluid after so many miles on it. But with the trans pan you probably wanna check your gasket around that pan and change it if it's rotted out which is the cause of your leak.

 

[NetNinja]

Thanks for the info !
I'll change it when I do my suspension.

 

[Bizzy]

When you do, pay close attention to the fluid, in particular, see if you have any metal particles and/or sludge in the pan.

Also make sure you tighten the bolts to the proper torque specs, you otherwise risk the chance of warping your pan (where the bolts go through) which would cause it to leak even more.

 

[NetNinja]

Thanks Bizzy!.
Yeah I'll break out the Old Helms Manual. I'll check out the seperate book about Transmissions that came with the set.

 

[Mr Anonymous]

I think the phrase you're looking for is "Old Wives' Tale", and yes, that's exactly what it is.

Replace your pan gasket and filter, and flush with fresh fluid.

 

[sho thing]

I'm looking at changing my tranny oil also. I just got the tranny oil kit from SHO shop, which includes a hand pump. I was expecting the pump to be able to pump OUT the oil through the fill hole, but the pump is meant to mount to the oil bottle and pump it IN. I remeber seeing on some forum somewhere at some time since I got my SHO five years ago instructions for drilling a hole in the bottom of your tranny pan and putting a pipe plug in, in order to enable an oil change. Without this, and without my imagined pump, how does one go about getting the old oil out? There's a hex head bold with a small bead of silicone around it near the bottom front of the tranny pan that looks suspiciously like a drain plug, but if SHO's already had these, why would anyone risk drilling a hole in a thin-ish aluminum casting and torque a steel pipe plug into it?

 

[olympic]

The above posts were discussing automatic transmissions, it sounds like you have a manual. The bolt you are referring to(with the silicone around it) can be removed to drain the oil. But it also serves to hold some of the tranny internals in place. There is a risk of those parts becoming dislodgged while the bolt is out. It is a rare occurence, but still worth mentioning. That's why many people install a dedicated drain plug. I have one and I love it.

It's simple to do, just drill a small hole, tap some threads in it and screw in a brass plug. It does not need to be very big, 1/4-3/8" will be plenty big enough. Instructions are on www.shotimes.com

 

[sho thing]

thanks for the correction and the instructions, olympic. hmmm... rare occurence, holds internals together. So, the chance of a failure is low, but the cost of a failure, given average market value, is approximately a new car. I think I'll be installing a plug.

 

[projectSHO89]

Of course, if you drill that hole wrong, you will be in the same boat.

Steve