Transmission oil analysis and particle counts

[mjosoba]

Great thread @Kernal I probably ought to do mine soon. Never dropped the pan, and approaching 270,000ish. Fluid is clean as a whistle. I almost don’t want to mess with it. Ha!

 

[Kernal]

Installing an inline filter is cheap insurance, but if you're concerned about it
getting plugged up then change it often. The manufacturers recommend 25,000 miles, so cut that down to 1/2 or even 1/4 the mileage??

Or, just put some extra magnets on the outside of the pan or on the drain plug itself, so next time you drain the pan those metallic (ferrous) particles will come out with the fluid.

If doing just a drain and fill it the particle count results seem to suggest that it may help to pour an extra quart or two of ATF straight through the pan to remove particles on the bottom of the pan that could be stirred up by the physical action of new fluid cascading in from above when refilling an empty pan??

Of course, the by-the-book answer is to drop the pan, inspect the magnets for excessive build-up (as seen in the link earlier in the thread), clean the magnets, put them back where they belong (add extra magnets??), clean the pan up, then put it back on.

And at that point, decide whether or not to do a complete fluid exchange.

I didn't mention this earlier, but on another FZJ80 I did a complete fluid exchange years ago using 16+ quarts of ATF. Sent a sample of ATF off to Blackstone labs after ?80,000-100,000 miles on that fluid, results came back better than perfect.

 

[yknot123]

Installing an inline filter is cheap insurance, but if you're concerned about it
getting plugged up then change it often. The manufacturers recommend 25,000 miles, so cut that down to 1/2 or even 1/4 the mileage??

Or, just put some extra magnets on the outside of the pan or on the drain plug itself, so next time you drain the pan those metallic (ferrous) particles will come out with the fluid.

If doing just a drain and fill it the particle count results seem to suggest that it may help to pour an extra quart or two of ATF straight through the pan to remove particles on the bottom of the pan that could be stirred up by the physical action of new fluid cascading in from above when refilling an empty pan??

Of course, the by-the-book answer is to drop the pan, inspect the magnets for excessive build-up (as seen in the link earlier in the thread), clean the magnets, put them back where they belong (add extra magnets??), clean the pan up, then put it back on.

And at that point, decide whether or not to do a complete fluid exchange.

I didn't mention this earlier, but on another FZJ80 I did a complete fluid exchange years ago using 16+ quarts of ATF. Sent a sample of ATF off to Blackstone labs after ?80,000-100,000 miles on that fluid, results came back better than perfect.

The A343F tranny issue. I reviewed I see a post of mine from last March.
Follow up to code light and overall tranny.
Code light indicated solenoid issue. Ordered a solenoid knowing it took three but the prices were up there.
Last question to the shop " Will I need to reset the computer for light to go out?"
It should go out after a few cycles if fixed or you can come by.
My plan was to remove pan and install new solenoids.
Why put new solenoids in old fluid. Change the fluid to clean for the new solenoids. YKNOT, grit in new is not good.
Drained what would come out, A Gallon. Now we know it holds more but other technique required to remove all.
Poured a Gallon back in and Daughter drove off. Comes home, "Dad the Light went off".
The one gallon made a difference in diluting the old for solenoids to work better possibly.
Did the major power flush with Wife, daughter and myself to flush out the tranny completely.
AS ANOTHER MUD MEMBER SAID " NOTHING LIKE WATCHING THAT BROWN FLOW OUT AND RED FLOW IN".
Certainly a worth while job for our FZJ80 @ 300,000.
My daughter ran the cruiser threw the gears. My wife pumped fluid in fill line after oil cooler and I poured in fluid through fill tube. We flushed about12-14 quarts, for a clean red line.
This lead to a complete baseline at 300,000 for all fluids. The cruiser runs better than ever, if it only didn't burn the oil.
Thanks for the great write up and IH8mud community input

 

[WCBlueSky]

did the magnefine filter have a bypass like the NTF

Yes