Transmission Oil Change, Water Test

If you look at the comment of yesterday's blog about the engine oil change you'll see some three very timely and useful suggestions from Mark. 

He recommended changing the engine oil and filter every 100 hours of running - 200 maximum - instead of the prescribed 500 hours.  Bob Carroll and I had been surprised at the 500 hours recommendation in the owners manual and I remember mumbling that I'd change it more frequently, maybe every 250 hours.  Mark's advice seals it.  My policy will be to change the oil and filter every 200 hours or 12 months, whichever comes first.

I plead mea culpa for not having changed the transmission oil and the policy will be to change the transmission oil whenever I change the engine oil.  This will agree nicely with the book's recommendation of every 200 hours for the transmission oil change.

To that end I changed the transmission oil this morning.  My big problem was that I had no working extraction pump and I was not about to trouble Bob for his pump in order to extract a measely 0.56 liters of ATF (automatic transmission fluid).  Besides, with the new more frequent change regime it was important that I have my own oil extraction resources for the return to Australia.

Fynspray Extraction Pump

There is nothing like quiet desperation for concentrating the mind.  I dug out the Fynspray pump for another look. I removed the plunger and had a look at the leather seal. ("Leather bucket" we would have called it during my brief time of windmill maintenance in Marble Bar.)  The seal looked a bit ragged on the edges but it was neither torn nor scored.  In fact, it looked pretty good.  I went round and round flaring out the seal with my fingers.  I then reinserted the plunger and soon learned the secret: instead of pumping up and down at the speed of a madman, push the plunger down, give the seal a half a second to seat itself, then pull the plunger back, bringing up the oil.  Fortunately I had kept the thin tube that had come with that cheap pump that I had thrown away.  I fitted it to the pump hose and before long I was hearing sucking sounds out of the transmission,  just like a drinking straw when the cup is empty.  At the bodega I found a new container of Quaker State ATF/3 and soon had the ATF up the mark on the dipstick.

In the photo you can see the pump setup, black hose for inlet, red hose for discharge. The brass fitting interfaces the thick hose with the thin one, and that worked well.  My next task is to interface the thick hose with another hose that will fit over the engine dipstick tube for fast extraction, as Mark suggested.  I'll need hose of 20mm ID to fit over the flare of the tube, and supple enough to clamp around the tube.

This oil change has been at 73 engine hours.  I will do the next one at 200 hours, so that in future I can work with multiples of 200.

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After the oil change cleanup I tested my epoxy filling work of yesterday by playing a heavy stream of water on the companionway step or about 5 minutes.  I then went down below and meticulously inspected the floor, walls, and ceiling with a workshop light and my hand.  The entire area was bone dry, and it looked like another #%^*# leak had been eliminated.  YES!