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Author Topic: Transmission Fluid/Filter DIY  (Read 26128 times)

Offline burban2002

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Transmission Fluid/Filter DIY
« on: November 26, 2008, 04:12:40 am »
My truck was approaching 65K miles and the tranny had never been serviced, so the fluid was pretty dark.  After going to the dealer and finding out that it would cost about $300 dollars for them to do the work I decided to tackle it myself (along with the help of some of the other people on this forum).  The following was done on a 2002 2500 with the 47RE but much of it should apply to the 48RE found on some later trucks.

Here is a list of the things you will need:


Transmission filter Mopar part number  52118789
About 19 quarts of ATF +4 Transmission fluid (Service manual said 17, but it took more)
3/8" ratchet
2" extension
1/2" 6 pt socket
Crescent wrench
19mm Flare Wrench
extra 3/4" wrench
3 feet of 1/2" clear vinyl tubing
Brake Fluid Cleaner/Degreaser
T-25 Torx bit/screwdriver
Drain Pan
5 gallon bucket
Metallica and George Strait playing on the stereo

First off place your drain pan under the tranny and drop the transmission pan.  Use the 1/2" socket with the 2" extension for this.  Loosen the bolts on 3 sides of the pan, but leave the rear ones fairly tight.  Once the front is pretty loose, it will start to drip fluid steadily.

(hard to see, but it is dripping a lot.)
Remove the bolts on the three sides but make sure you do not let all the weight of the pan and fluid hang on the back side as you could bend the pan flange.  Finally remove the rear bolts and CAREFULLY lower the pan.  You need a steady hand so you don't end up getting an ATF shampoo.

Now it should look like this:


After letting this drip for a while use the T-25 torx screwdriver to remove the two screws holding the filter on to the valve body.  Again, this is going to drip a lot of ATF, so watch yourself.  Try not to drop the two screws into your pan as it may ruin your day :whistling:

After removing the filter your tranny should look like this and you can clearly see the valve body


Use a lint free cloth to wipe off the valve body and the pan mounting flange.

After this, I turned to the pan.  As you can see, the sucker was pretty dirty, but at least there was no metal chunks in there :up:


Remove the round magnet from the bottom of the pan and wipe the "sludge" off of it.  The junk on the magnet is pretty normal as long as it is very fine.  Clean the pan with a degreaser like brake cleaner.  After you are done cleaning it, it should look like this



Install the new filter and screw it in until it is good and tight


Bolt the pan back up with the gasket in place, but make sure to do it evenly so every thing lays nice and flat.  The transmission pan gasket is a neoprene one and can be used as long as it is in good shape.  Mine was, so I wiped it off and reused it.  The gasket has metal inserts where it bolts up, so there is not much danger of crushing the gasket when reinstalling it.



Now comes the fun part.  The very rearmost line entering the transmission is the fluid return line.  You need to unscrew the outer bolt using the 19mm flare wrench (to avoid stripping it) while holding the bolt closest to the transmission still.  The outer flair bolt was incredibly tight and I could not get enough torque on it to break it loose.  To increase the torque (well actually the lever arm), you can hook the closed end of the 3/4" wrench into the end of the flair wrench that is not connected to anything.  Once the wrenches are hooked together correctly, it is a snap.
My finger is pointing at the rear bolt and line that you need to remove.


I used the transmission pump to remove the old fluid, while I poured new fluid in.  After I dropped the pan, I added 4 quarts through the tube.  Then I connected the 1/2" clear vinyl tubing to the transmission line that was removed.  I ran the line into the 5 gallon bucket that I had marked with 4 quart increments before hand.  Apply the parking brake and start the engine.  Shift into neutral as the tranny will not pump fluid in park.  While I pumped the tranny, I shifted though all the gears to make sure the valve body and all the lines got cleared out.  When I got to 4 quarts, I shut the truck off and added 4 more.

(Crappy pic, but you can see the 4 quart markings and the fluid (It was not quite as bad as it looks)

Continue doing this until you run about 17 quarts through the system or until the fluid starts to look like a nice cherry red.  Reconnect the line and make sure it is snugged down


After you have done this check the fluid level (in neutral) and make sure it is on the dip stick. Get the transmission fluid warm and add more ATF in small increments until it is at the full warm mark.  Do not over fill it as it can cause foaming of the fluid and the tranny will shift weird.  Although the owners manual does not state it, it can be helpful to have an assistant stand on the brakes and shift into drive.  Then check the fluid level again and make sure it is at the correct level.  Also double check and make sure the pan is not dripping any fluid.

After you are done, sit back, crack a beer open and be content with the fact you saved yourself about 200 bucks :cheers: :cheers:
Edge Comp thanks to JakeBrake

Offline Cujo

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Re: Transmission Fluid/Filter DIY
« Reply #1 on: October 14, 2010, 03:21:06 am »
One filter (unless I missed one when I did mine 2 weeks ago), OEM ATF+4 is synthetic.
2007 Dodge Ram 2500 SLT 4x4 Quad Cab SWB
5.9L I6 Cummins Diesel/4 speed auto, Big Horn Edition
Westin Oval tubes, MBRP exhaust, AFE CAI, DiPricol Gauges,
Smarty, Line-x, Dynatrac Free Spin Hubs

 

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