I must confess I have secretly thought about drilling a hole in the pan in order to drain the fluid prior to dropping the tranny pan. I have changed tranny fluid on my previous Chevy 4L60E and I pretty much took an atf bath. It wasn't as bad as some experiences I've heard, but it wasn't terribly clean either. What makes the maintenance task of tranny fluid and filter change really tough is I'm only working with one hand. It adds a certain circus element to anything I work on

I was googling and youtubing and I ran across this video (at the 40sec mark). The guy said and did drill a hole with the pan still on.

http://youtu.be/Gb24f8mWCB8?t=38s

My concern with this is the drill bit punching too far and poking something important on the tranny. What do you guys think? If the location of the hole were appropriate and care was taken to break through with the tip only (enough to drain and clean up the hole after the pan is off) would you try it? Also, where would be a good spot to put a hole? (what square?)

 

Oh, I should have stated but didn't, where the hole is drilled is where a drain plug will be installed. So, putting the plug where it won't bump into anything on the tranny is a consideration as well.

 

I did mine on the driveway with a pretty good incline and loosened the rear bolts so it drained out where I wanted it too. Then I carefully dropped the pan into a covered pan that has the hole in the middle. Was not too bad, I just took my time. I put the plug exactly where the guy on your vid put his. No worried about bumping it on anything, I rarely 4x so it is all good.

 

As long as you are only applying light pressure on the drill you should not have any issues with hitting anything.

But what ever you do........ make sure you video it for us to watch!

 

Personally I would think it'll end up almost just as messy. Once you punch through fluid is going to start pouring out down your drill, arm, etc.

 

Shhhhh....... We want her to film this!!

 

I use a hand suction pump from Napa,pump it out of the Trans filler tube,takes about 5 minutes.

 

Hey hey hey!




Yeah, I thought about that. I guess the mess that I'm comparing is controlling a pan-wide flow of fluid vs the punch through mess. I would have to be quick and really not hang up the bit. If I could get in and out quickly with my drain pan in place I might minimize the mess. I'm gonna think about it.


My driveway is pretty sloped too so I'm considering that. But ever since I figured out I could get the truck in our impossibly small garage I've been excited about working on a flat surface again. I suppose I might end up staining my garage floor ATF4 red. Thanks for the confirmation on the plug location

 

This might be the smarter and cleaner way to do it. If I do this, rockcrawler won't get his video


Is a pump expensive? What kind of capacity do the tanks have?

 

__________________

 

I use a larger sterlite plastic container and take out the bolts along the side or back, and loosen the rest and tip down to get some fluid then push it back up and use my other hand to remove the last bolt with cordless impact and then lower and tip away from me into the pan.

 

I had a shop drill mine but also did a second one for a trans temp sender. IMO these transmissions should come with a trans temp guage and while the pan is already off why not do both?

 

Good idea about getting a the tranny temp sender in while I'm there.

 

Also my tranny gasket is seeping a little bit. Don't know if it's worn out or bolts need to be snugged. Should I buy a new gasket and replace it just to be safe even though they are reuseable?

 

I think most filters come with a new gasket but I could be wrong. If you are taking the pan off to do anything I would replace both filter and gasket then as they don't cost that much.