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How to drain transmission fluid from Turbo 350 (72 Olds Cutlass Supreme)
I have over filled my transmission with fluid and wanted to know the best way to drain it. I am trying to swap it with a newer shorter dipstick tube and need to be able to mark it accurately. However, I laid my new dipstick (on the right) side by side to my old dipstick(On the left) and although my newer dipstick is shorter in length the "full line" is actually higher than the old dipstick which is three inches longer.
Old dipstick is on the left and new is on the right.
My new dipstick tube is 27 inches long. I don't know the length of my old dipstick tube but the dipstick itself is 30 inches long. Also, I wanted to know what is the best way to mark a dipstick (permanent marker or engrave).
There is only one way to drain a transmission that I've ever heard of, and that's to loosen the bolts that hold the pan on, and slowly lower it. Let one side get lower than the other so the fluid pours out of that side into whatever catch pan you have underneath it. There is no way that I've ever found to do this without making at least a small mess, so have rags handy.
I have heard of devices that will such the fluid out through the fill tube. I have no experience with those.
I can't help you with the dipstick issue. However, there are drain plug "kits" that you can install in the pan so you don't need to remove it when you want to change the fluid.
If you need to let some out, just crack the lower trans to radiator line, fire it
up and loosen it just to let out what you need. Just have a catch pan underneath ready.
I can't stand Harbor Freight but I do use one of these. It will reach to the bottom of the dipstick tube and you can suck the oil out that way into a bucket. Then you can drop the pan making less of a mess.
I can't stand Harbor Freight but I do use one of these. It will reach to the bottom of the dipstick tube and you can suck the oil out that way into a bucket. Then you can drop the pan making less of a mess.
was always annoyed the trans pans didnt have a factory drain plug.it can get messy draining them .i would use engraver or the sharp edge of a file to make a permanant mark on the dipstick .the pump or the tranny line method both sound like good ways to drop the level a bit
I used this Siphon Pump Kit at the Home Depot and it worked just fine. The only issue was gauging how much to pump out in order to get the level down just below full. Now I'm ready to swap out transmission dipstick tubes. Thanks again.
was always annoyed the trans pans didnt have a factory drain plug.
Back in the 80s I got a pan with what looks like a factory drain plug from a friend of mine who was into Chevys. Luckily his car had a TH400 so he had no use for the pan and gave it to me. It's one of the best things I ever put on my car.
I never had much luck using one to bleed the brakes, nothing works better than the "old fashioned" method. That would be a convenient way to drain fluids though.
Negative Dr. Olds. I've used professional auto brake bleeders back when I was in college. They work fine, but IMHO nothing beats crawling underneath the car with a wrench.
I managed to get the old dipstick tube off. However, while trying to clean the old sealant i plugged the hole where the dipstick tube came out of with a piece of shop napkin to prevent sealant from falling in and the actual napkin fell in. Now I was advised to drop the trans pan in order to remove the napkin because it could clog up my filter.
So, I managed to remove the trans pan and replace the filter. I figured while the pan was off I would install the new transmission dipstick tube. Unfortunately, the new dipstick does not line up with the previous hole on the back of the motor that the old one did. It actually lines up to a bolt on the back of the transmission. I cannot reach this bolt and have tried many of times. I am just going to take it into a transmission shop to have them remove the bolt and bolt down the dipstick tube. I wanted to know would driving the car for 15-20 miles to a shop without having the dipstick tube bolted down affect anything? Additionally I wanted to know should I use some black silicone around the tube once the tube is in the hole..and should i put some in the actual hole that the tube slides in while the pan is still off? It appears that the actual hole had some silicone in it before. I had to remove some silicone from around the old dipstick tube when I pulled it out. I want to make it secure but not too secure to where the shop may have to move it out the way in order to reach the bolt on the transmission.
