Transmission Oil Change Day

Transmission oil change day.  Whoever designed and built the Ford Lehman engine had their act together and included a hand operated oil pump-out feature in its design.  Takes a while, a little messy, but it works.  Having done it, now I know why having a yard do the work came out to $600 bucks.

This same person must have been on vacation when the Borg Warner Velvet Drive 7258 was designed.  “Warner drain plug is a hex plug located near the bottom right side.  In some instances, the cooler return hose may be fed into the plug at the bottom requiring removal of the hose, and rotating the brass elbow to facilitate draining the oil.” 

Jiffy Lube has the right idea.  Drive a car into a service bay and a technician goes down stairs, reaches over his/her head and has ready access to all the drain plugs, filters and tools to do the job.  Not true on a boat.  Recall that the engine and transmission are already near the lowest part of the boat.  Standing on your head, removing all these parts and being sure to catch all the draining oil in something other than the bilge would take some ingenuity.

Jim, a mechanic, and the builder of Goldie, the home built sail boat across the dock, and I were discussing things while practicing lifting 12 oz bottles from table top to head height.  “Don’t you have a dipstick oil pump thing on board”?  Hummm.  I recall Peggy holding up a weird contraption consisting of small hoses, alligator clip’s and wires some time back last summer.  Once again, to the PO’s credit, and Peggy’s urge to sort, I found a Tupperware storage bin in the lazzarette with a Dipstick Oil Pump Out kit, and imagine this, all the parts!!  An hour later and the job was done.  Piece of cake.  Still need to dump the oil in the bucket behind the ice maker.