Transmission Plug Stripped / Pan Replacement

Any reason not to use any RTV like

And anybody know the torque spec for the pan bolts? I've read 3 ft. lb. or 39 in. lb.?

 

FSM calls for 65 in-lb which is little over 5 ft-lb. Personally, proper sequence and tightness by feel serves me better.

 

Overall this job was a total pain in the neck. I never want to have to do it again, although it was a good learning experience. God forbid I did it wrong somehow and it starts leaking and I have to do it all over again.

I count 3 major difficult steps for this pan job that.
1) Removing the 19 pan bolts and hoping none of them break during removal. Luckily none of mine broke.
2) Removing the pan itself by breaking the FIPG seal. Even with the dedicated seal cutter tool, I still had to stick a knife in there to get it started first before I could fit the seal cutter tool blade.
3) Installing the new pan or reinstalling the pan without smearing the FIPG. Royal PITA.

Scraping off the old FIPG was incredibly tedious. This stuff just doesn't want to come off. Acetone did not help. A shop towel soaked in brake cleaner did help a bit. It took me hours just to scrape off all the old FIPG from the transmission body section, I used a little blue plastic scraper pen from Amazon for this.

For the new gasket glue, I used Permatex "Ultra Black" RTV because that's what I had on hand. Instructions say to put down a 2mm bead, but is that 2mm wide or 2mm tall? This stuff comes out of the tube through a circular hole. So instead of measuring 2mm, I just put down a "nice bead" following the middle surface of the pan edge, putting the RTV inward at the bolt holes per the tutorial. I probably overdid it. There is RTV visibly squishing out the sides of the newly installed pan.
Do I have RTV "worms" in the pan because I put too much on the pan? I have no way of knowing because I can't see in there without removing the pan and starting all over again. In theory the transmission strainer should catch that crap from flowing into the trans, right?

I found it necessary to bring down my sway bar to gain access to the front few bolts, there just wouldn't be enough room otherwise. Reinstalling the sway bar to the two brackets was an unexpected pain in the ass. I think I was fighting bushing tension to get it in place and line up the bracket holes to the bolts on each side. Once I got the bracket nuts and bolts screwed in (2 on each side), there was no way I could fit a torque wrench in there. So I tightened it down with some good old fashioned hand powered ugga-duggas.

I also found it necessary to remove my dipstick tube before reinstalling the pan. Trying to line up the new pan with RTV on it, avoiding smearing it as much as possible, while lining up all 19 bolt holes and holding it up as I lay on the floor is just too difficult to have to also deal with lining up the dipstick tube and pushing that in. It was hard enough to just avoid smearing the RTV, and I'm pretty sure I've smeared it at least a bit.
Anyway, after installing the pan I reinstalled the dipstick tube. The bolt that holds the dipstick tube is unreachable with a torque wrench so I again used non-electric ugga-duggas to get it tightened.

 

Looks great man. Good job.

 

Just did this last week and found it relatively painless

1) Using a 1/4" drive impact, all the bolts came out easy.
2) Using a plastic wedge in one corner, the pan came free easily after few hammer hits.
3) I made 2 alignment dowels from 2 inch long M6 bolts with the heads cut off. Screwed them into the transmission a few holes apart and the pan slides into place with perfect alignment and no smearing. Just get two of the pan bolts started, then you can get the dipstick bolt in easily.

Looks like you may have used too much RTV. This is what it should look like,

 

Pretty sure that picture is his old pan. That's what yours should have looked like when you removed it. Mine did.

 

That IS my old pan after removing the old RTV and applying the new.

 

But you're saying he applied too much RTV. What he took a picture of is the old pan. He didn't photograph his new bead of RTV on new pan. Unless you're saying it's poking out from the last picture.

Yours looks good though. Nice clean bead.

 

So it looks like I used too much because some RTV is squishing out the outside edge?

 

I wouldn't stress over. It. Make sure it's not leaking any over the next week and send it.

 

I've seen it ooze out a lot more so wouldn't worry about it.

 

+1

Even if you have excessive "squish out" (that's an official mechanical engineering term ) on the interior, the RTV is going to tend to stay bonded with itself as it cures. Then once it's fully cured it should stay put since there's not a lot of agitation in the pan.

When I did this job on my old 4Runner (same transmission) I opted for an aftermarket pre-made gasket -- it just seemed to make more sense to me, and it worked fine.

 

Looks like a fine, clean job. Nicely done!

 

I think I can safely say there are no leaks from the new pan install! Just want to thank everyone for the help and input.

One thing to note, I saw about 7.5qt of ATF that came out. I let the whole thing drip pan-less for a while as well. I don't have containers with actual measurements but each of those kimchi containers are a little over a gallon in volume, and I use the dipstick-measurement method to ensure I've put in enough ATF.

I put in 6qt to start and the fluid read high on the dipstick. Like really high. I started the truck and idled it, running through the gears, holding the brakes intending to have the transmission "suck in" ATF. Checked the dipstick again, fluid shows really low on the dipstick now. So I put in another 1 qt and drove about 40 miles. Checked dipstick again and again needed to add more to have it show proper level, about 0.5 qt more.
Total ATF replaced: 7.5qt. Maybe a tad more, 7.7 ish.

The truck drives fine, shifts slightly better than before (this is the 2nd drain/fill since purchase at 178k mi and assuming never drain/filled), and overall shows no trans issues. 4qt definitely would've been insufficient.

 

I wouldn't assume you need 7.5qts every time you drain/refill it now. Really weird that amount came out of it. I'm guessing that 7.5qts was measured cold because I've never drained that much coming out before myself.

 

You get a lot more out when the pan is off. I had the same experience when I replaced my pan. I think I had to add almost 8 quarts.