change manual trans fluid

sgull

sgull

Member
The service/maintenance booklet for my 5 speed manual 98 Ranger says change the manual transmission "oil" at 55,000 miles but the vehicle is now at 97,000 miles and it's never been done yet. The owners manual specifies the fluid to use is 2.8 quarts of Mercon ATF (although for some reason the service schedule refers to the fluid as "manual transmission oil"). I've never done this job before but it looks pretty straightforward, just basically drain and refill. Any tips/suggestions/comments that might be helpful for someone like me doing it for the first time? thanks...
 
yep its pretty straight forward. just make sure you can get the fill plug out before you drain it. drain the old, fill it up with the right ATF until it spills out and plug it back up. i did mine mileage wise like you did, boy was it dark! but yes don't put gear lube in, use the ATF it calls for. also i put on some of that white Teflon thread tape on the plugs too but it isn't mandatory.
 
ok, thanks SalRanger2. Good tip to make sure I can get the fill plug out okay beforehand! I probably might not have done that if you hadn't mentioned it. My luck I'd drain it first without doing that and then find out it'll take me forever to manage to get a stuck fill plug out. First thing I'll do then is go ahead and PB Blast that fill plug and make sure I can turn the plug out before proceeding.
When refilling, the fill hole seems kinda up there where it'll be rather difficult to tip the quart bottles of ATF and have the fluid run down into the hole. I don't have the special type fluid pump and if I'm too cheap to go buy one what's a good way otherwise? maybe rig up a funnel/tube business to get it in?
 
no problem! yea it shouldnt be too bad with corrosion since its aluminium but a good idea to spray it. even with all the rust under my truck it came right out.
yea the refilling is a big pain. i wish i invested in something that was a pump to use. i ended up getting a funnel with lid and a plastic hose combo at wal-mart. that didnt go so well, but it worked. i think the problem was the tube was really long but i didnt want to cut it haha. so id see if you could find some kind of pump type jug somewhere and fill that with the ATF and do it that way.but if you could rig up a funnel good that could work
 
I have always ran synthetic gear oil in mine. I have had 3 rangers over the years in the manual. My personal opinion is that ATF is not good for gear boxes. I suppose ATF is fine for a DD. But I work my trucks hard and dont trust it. I have had a manual fail on me with ATF in it. Never had one fail with Gear oil.

You may find it easier to remove the shifter and fill from the top of the trans. While your at it, go to ford and buy the bushing kit. It will replace worn out and sloppy shifter syndrome. :D
 
pooleo mines a 2WD daily driver. I don't work it hard. I'm sticking with the regular ol' ATF for this rig. Nothing too exciting going on with my stock 2.5L 4 banger.

I just got a long piece of clear vinyl tubing, ran it from the open hood area down to the transmission there, stuck one end of the tubing in the tranny fluid fill hole and stuck a funnel on the other end of the tubing and filled it that way. Worked pretty easily I thought.

thanks:thumbup1:
 
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How to fill manual trannye

When I had my 90 I put a clutch in it drain the tranny to remove after I put it back in and went to fill it ran into the same problem, took an old dish detergent bottle removed the pop up part of the cap and took a tight fitting piece of clear plastic tubing and jammed it on the end poured the tranny fluid in it put the lid on shoved the hose in the hole raised the bottle as high as I could and just kept squeezing until empty, repeated until full. Hope this helps been there done that.
 
Filling manual tranny

Ran into the same problem after a clutch change on my 90, ended up using an old dish detergent bottle. Remove the popup part of the cap fit a piece of clear tubing over the spout make sure it is tight fill bottle with fluid insert tube in hole raise the bottle as high as possible and squeeze until empty. Repeat until full. Hope this helps because have been there and done that.
 
I just pulled the shifter bezel and boot off and stuck funnel w hose on and it worked perfect..

Sent from my Droid Incredible 2
 
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