Category: Maintenance

Time to change the transmission fluid, and final drive fluid. My automatic transmission leaks, and one common leak spot is the dipstick tube. An otterstat seal is recommended as a replacement for the problematic O rings. I’ll give it a try.

Castrol trans fluid, gear oil for the final drive:

I had a gear oil bottle with a little left from a previous fluid change. I also got a piece of tubing to make filling the final drive easier.

Draining the final drive:

Draining the trans and final drive:

Pesky dipstick tube:

Old O ring, new Otterstat seal

Installed:

It seems the dipstick tube will sit a little higher with the otterstat seal. I’ll be sure to adjust my readings with the dipstick.

Costs:

When I took delivery of my car in 2007, the rear window wasn’t glued onto the underbody. The car was delivered with a tube of sealant, so I did my best to glue on the window.

5 years later, the window separated from the underbody in some spots, and the wind noise was strong. I cut away lots of the excess glue, used masking tape to mask off the glue area, and attempted to get a better seal on the window. I applied the sealant from inside, and outside the cabin. The car is once again watertight, and sounds quieter!

I also repainted the rusty brackets for the rear wall and cargo net. Sure enough, I broke the plastic nozzle off the spray paint can, and cracked off the tube coming out of the can. The can was rendered useless, and I had to buy another can. Here they are after some sanding and grinding:

I previously removed all the insulation in the back of the car, and put down dynamat. I glued new foam onto the back of the rear wall, which I had left over from recovering some dining room chairs. To match the height of the plywood compartment covers, I added some styrofoam sheets that I had with some packaging materials. 

Yes, that says $9.95 on the containers of oil. I got some API SM rated oil on discount, when the SN oil was coming out awhile back. The oil filter and crush washer were purchased a while ago.
Mileage: 31,615

It had been two years since I last changed the coolant. Time for a drain and refill. The drain plug on the new aluminum radiator helps out a lot, and my bleeder kit makes burping the system easy. I also replaced a coolant hose leading into the auto transmission cooler. The hose had a slight kink in it, so I swapped it with a piece I had on hand, and repositioned everything to avoid another kink.

My passenger side axle’s CV boots tore open. Possibly because the previous owner didn’t use the correct clamps. The hose clamp interferes with the bolts:

Here’s where the hose clamp dug into the boot and cut it open:

This one split:

Supplies:

Large sheet of cardboard
Simple Green
Paper Towels
Garbage bag
Nitrile Gloves (several pairs)
CV boot clamp pliers
Large Groove Joint Pliers (to reshape the cup that holds the large end of the boot)
Small flat screwdriver
Hammer
Side Cutters
Old toothbrush to clean bolt threads
New CV Boots, grease, clamps
Zip Ties for small end of the boots
Blue Threadlocker
Music

Degreased:

Packed with grease:

Done:

Installed:

I also replaced a missing lock washer.
I couldn’t get too many pictures because my hands were always greasy.

The cabin’s fresh air intake will collect acorn tops, seeds, leaves, and other debris. One suggestion is to put a screen over it:

http://www.ohiodeloreans.com/gallery-TipsTricksMods.htm

I removed the windshield grill, and vacuumed out debris:

I had some scrap fiberglass screen on hand, and set it with a few dabs of RTV.

After reinstalling the grill, I’ll trim the screen. I also cleaned the fragile, broken grill:

I also discovered I was missing all but one of the rubber stands used to hold up the windshield grill. I found some nylon bushings at Ace Hardware that are the exact height:

Costs:

Screen: On Hand
RTV: On Hand
Nylon bushings: (7 @ $0.33) $2.31 at Ace Hardware