Leaderboard

Aight, this is my general build thread now. If anybody ever sees a mod again before Lost convinces the webhost to shut the forum down, feel free to move it to the build thread forum. First: followup on sliding windows. Big storm; no leaks in the urethane. But, those three plastic rivets in the forward exterior bottom corner are open at the bottom, to drain rainwater out of the track. They introduce wind noise at highway speed. I guess taxis don't spend a lot of time going 70. My girlfriend says she can barely hear it, but it drives me bananas, so I slapped some tape over the rivets and the noise stopped. But, if it rains, a bit of water does back up into the track. I got a few drips down inside, and I don't want to grow mold in the track seal. A more permanent solution might be some sort of stick-on airdam, like aftermarket drip rails. ----- Next project: trans fluid change, simultaneously addressing Ford's baffling decision not to include a drain plug. Original plan was to swap to the Mazda pan with a plug, part# FN11-21-51XB. But, the ~$40 listing I was looking at turned out to be bullshit: cheapest possible for OEM seems to be $52 from QuirkParts on Ebay. I decided to treat that as the backup plan, and vaguely follow this dude's advice to install the Dorman 65241 for ~$6. I didn't swap out the nylon washers, but I did apply RTV. If I get leaks, I can either pick up more .025 wire and weld it to the pan, or I can buy the Mazda pan after all. So first off, the bottom of the engine bay on this thing is a goddamned joy to work on. Nothing is in the way of anything. Honda should take notes. Trans pan is held on by 20 8mm bolts. Oil that came out was not red. Filter has some kind of plug clipped to it (yellow wires) but it pops off super easy. New filter is WIX 58617 / FT1210. It's the nicest one that comes with a rubber gasket. An aside: the spec on this trans is Ford's grey RTV, which by my understanding is like Permatex Ultrablack in the aftermarket. If the rubber gasket leaks, I'll switch back, but at first glance, RTV in this application can blow me. The raised lip on the trans pan means you can't just scrape the old material off; it sticks in the corners at the base of the lip. Brass-bristle brush was the best strategy, and it started to flake some of the paint off the pan. Trans body cleaned up with a scotchbrite pad. The drain plug goes on the back edge of the pan. I centered it in the flat bit in the middle, as low as I could get it while leaving space to apply RTV on the inside and clear the magnet, which sits right there. Hole is 1/2". Torque is 2-fingers on a 3/8" ratchet. The nature of the drain hole means this plug will drain slower and leave more fluid behind than the Mazda pan. Again, between those concessions and the potential for leaks, this job might end up getting done again at some point in the future. Relevant page from the shop manual. Ford specs special solvent to remove the old RTV. 89 in/lbs is ~7.5 ft/lbs. Fill up and leak test tomorrow.