just remember to put down some larger cardboard pieces to catch any spills... that's what I did... I removed the pan with it full, minimal spillage..

 

Your welcome. Be carefull with the bit going too deep. The valvebody and filter are right there pretty close.

 

Nice, what kind of drain plug and where did you get it.

Thanks

 

i'll chuck the bit so i can only drill 1/4" deep. thanks for heads up on . v.b

 

It was one from O'Reilly auto parts, part# 65241 (Napa has the same one too). It was in the drain plug section. This one has a drain plug that is a short bolt & o-ring. The B&M one was $5 more and uses a 1/8" pipe plug. The B&M one is good choice for adding a temp sender to if needed.

 

I would have another vehicle handy before you drill your pan. Just in case anything decides to go wrong and you need to get parts or whatever! You might just want to use one of those under the bed storage totes for a pan to catch the fluid. It should be big enough that you won't get any on the drive. Just a thought.

 

Pull the return line, clamp on a hose to extend it out from under the truck and run it into a 5 gal bucket. Start it up, put it in N and pump out a few qts. It will make life so much easier.

If you don't want to do this, tie rags around your wrists so any fluid running down your hands doesn't go down your sleeves. Get an plastic trashcan lid and drill some holes in the middle and put that over your catch container. You can use a couple pieces of duct tape to keep it from sliding off. If you have a 4wd and use a 5 gal bucket, it will be pretty close to the pan limiting the amount of fluid that makes it to the ground.

 

this might be a stuipid question..which one is the return line?

 

The line further back - towards the rear of the truck.

 

i know someone said torx bolts hold the filter on. can anybody confirm what size exactly? i need to buy one of those. and yes, i have my cycle to get back to the store if needed!! roger that, over.

 

I believe it's a T27. I wrote down what size the band adjustment was, but forgot to write down the filter torx size

Usually, you can get a small combo set of them in 1/4" & 3/8" drive from the parts store. That way your covered for different future repairs.

 

i have 20,000 miles, do i need to adjust the bands?

 

just got through changing mine.. # 25 torx is what mine were on the filter.. Added drain plug kit.. adjusted band about a 1/4 turn.. 7.5 qts of ATF-4 to fill

 

ive never adjusted a band before, how is this process done?

 

Don't!, not until you start having shifting issues. If you mis-adjust, or over adjust than you can wear out the bands faster than necessary or really screw up the trans. Change the fluid and filter and leave it at that. At 20k miles the bands shouldn't even be a worry.