Transmission Drain plug Stripped: ...best practice? (1 Viewer)

[flintknapper]

Well I'll be damned. Happened to me today.

Drain plug felt way too hard to break loose, then felt too loose for the 1/2 way out then got hard to remove again. Stripped out.

Ran a tap up trough the pan...but managed to get it a bit crooked. Got a new pan and plug ordered and some weld in bungs, so which ever gets here first. Its not leaking real bad....but definitely got a leak at the drain plug now. Oh......well.

 

[ShenValley100LC]

So this bolt stripping has happened to me twice now, and while servicing my VW I had an idea...for VW (and for a lot of German cars) its standard practice to use a vacuum pump to drain oil through the dip stick....why not do this with the transmission fluid on my LC? Is there any drawback to sticking a 1/4" hose down the trans dipstick (for those of us who have it) and sucking up the transmission fluid in the pan? If I get the same amount and I'm not replacing the filter anyways aren't I accomplishing the same thing? The dip stick tube does go to the pan right and not somewhere else right?

 

[flintknapper]

The dip stick tube does go to the pan right and not somewhere else right?

Yes, but you'll have to feed enough tubing into the pan so that it hits the bottom and 'coils'. The dipstick tube sits well above the fluid level in the bottom of the pan.

 

[ShenValley100LC]

So this bolt stripping has happened to me twice now, and while servicing my VW I had an idea...for VW (and for a lot of German cars) its standard practice to use a vacuum pump to drain oil through the dip stick....why not do this with the transmission fluid on my LC? Is there any drawback to sticking a 1/4" hose down the trans dipstick (for those of us who have it) and sucking up the transmission fluid in the pan? If I get the same amount and I'm not replacing the filter anyways aren't I accomplishing the same thing? The dip stick tube does go to the pan right and not somewhere else right?

Just an update, I did this back in December before a big trip and it works great and I highly recommend. It's cleaner, faster, and easier and then my ATF is already in a sealed container ready to bring to get recycled/dumped. I got 4 qts out in no time and didnt have to touch that dumb bolt that always strips.