Tranny oil change... i hate surprises!

[Pascal]

i've been procrastinting changing the oil in my trannies... but figured is really had to do it.

no problem... fire em up, run them in gear for 10 minutes to warm the oil, get an empty pail, a full pail of oil, go to the stbd ER, flick the first valve on the manifold and turn on the oil change pump. and wait... and wait... and wait.

after 10 minutes of head scratching, trying to pump in some clean oil to make sure the pump impeller was ok, i looked around and discovered that the hoses where never connected to the trannies but lying half hidden near the stringers.

I guess conencting them with the monsters in place must be near impossible... i'm going to use a small 12v oil changer to suck the oil out of the dipstick, although next time around, I'll probably do it when i clear the screens since it's probably easier thru that larger hole.

i hate surprises!

[Traveler 45C]

Mine is a new boat to me. I check everything before I use it or work on it. I’ve found lots of things different than the blue prints show. It really PMO that the previous owners didn’t log or diagram anything. I asked the “Capt” who ran the boat about a black box mounted in one of the galley cabinets. He had no idea…

It wasn’t that hard for me to pull oil from the dipstick tube. As long as the oil is warm…

[MikeP]

Sounds to me like the perfect opportunity to intrepret this as a sign from the transmission gods that the oil didn't need changing anyway!


I think all used boats are required to incorporate some minimal number of items that you look at and say, "What the...?"

There were two added-on switches in the AC panel at the top of stairs to the galley that the previous owner lableled in huge letters, "DO NOT TURN ON." So I didn't for a couple of months.

Finally, one day I said, "What the Heck!" and flipped them on.
Turns out that that one switch switches several A/C circuits from normal shore/generator power to inverter power. The other switch turns on the 3000W inverter. The circuits/inverter work perfectly. A few weeks ago I talked to the previous owner who had been out of state for the winter. One of the things I asked him was why the switches were so labeled. He said it was because the inverter eventually drained the battery.

Well yeah, they do tend to do that...

Then there's the fuel transfer pump with one end of the hose disconnected - like your tranny drain hoses- and the missing head to holding tank hose...

[Traveler 45C]

Or,

How about the one about the bilge pump float switch not hooked up? The wires were there, just not connected…

I guess the pump is just supposed to know when to turn on.

[Pascal]

actaully the same thing happened with the genset, when the norpro was installed 2 or 3 years ago, they never connected the oil drain hose, luckily, the norpro already has a hose going from the crankcase to a plate on the side so that was easy...

this one is puzzling because that pump and manifold looks pretty old, it has nice labels on the valve ID'd the trannys... yet was never connected. I might try to rig a thin hose that i can just slilde in the dip stick using the fixed pump although the small diameter might restrict the flow and burn the impeller before it gets oil thru...

I have a number on unknown wires, switches, etc.. i often remove old stuff when im sure it's no longer needed... recently i opened the overhead console at the lower helm and found a bunch of odl black boxes... part of an old loran, etc... I wish i could get rid of all the old autopilot stuff, an original wood freeman, it seems that every compartment i look in , I find a module for the AP... it's obviously not working and not worth fixing.

spekaing of autopilot, this is what happens when one malfcuntions in a narrow channel... warning ... graphic content... pictures were sent to me by someone on the trawler list...
http://www.pam-trading.com/pg/misc/srwreck.htm
note the catastrophic (understatement) failure of the (thin) hull

[SKYCHENEY]

My trans oil wouldn't pump either. Then I looked and there was an extra valve where the line connects to the trans. The mains and gen don't have an extra valve, but I assume this must be because of the higher pressure in the trans.

It doesn't look like too much of a job to hook up the line. Just a piece of threaded copper pipe in mine that is screwed in where the bottom drain plug was. Then it's connected to a brass ball valve and then to the hose.

[Traveler 45C]

Hey, what’s that orange thing in the top right hand corner of the 5th picture?

[MarioG]

Hey, what’s that orange thing in the top right hand corner of the 5th picture?

I'm afraid to ask...

[eze2bme]

I recently changed my tranny oil and cleaned the filter screens. I have Twin Disc MG506 trannys which each hold 1.2 gal. I warmed them up and used a 12 volt pump with a small diameter hose down the dip stick tube ... worked great ... pumped right into the 5 gal pail that the pump was attached to.

[jim rosenthal]

I used to date a woman who was a naval architect that worked for SeaRay for a while. Cheap thinly built boats. Not surprised to see the photos. The Coors banner is an especially nice touch.
Yeah, what IS the orange thing? The booby prize for hitting the bank?