Changing transfer case fluid

[foghorn23]

I've looked for posts concerning changing the transfer case fluid and have found everything I think I need to know except two things. Where do you drain the fluid and how much is required? Thanks

 

Vroten

[frdfandc]

On the back side of the transfercase (where rear driveshaft comes out) there should be 2 drain plugs. the bottom one is for draining, the top one is for filling. When you fill the transfer case, fill it till the fluid starts coming out of the fill hole.

[99silveradoz71]

The first response was dead on. What may be of additional help could be a marine type handpump which screws on the end of bottles. That way you can hold the hose at the end in the fill hole and push the pump on top of the bottle if you're at an awkward pouring angle. As for capacity, it escapes me at the moment, but I know on my 99, a TSB for driveline clunk said to drain the old, fill with blue, drive a few miles, then drain and fill again.

[Mike C]

Hi, changed mine today . Auto-trakII fluid, $4.15 a liter bottle, two bottles will do it, if you dont spill to much. Like 99silveradoz71 said buy a bottle pump. note: only use this stuff if you have autotrac transfer case. If you have the manual shift buy ATF dexronIII or equivalent. have fun

Part# for the autotrakII fluid 12378508.

[Greek]

I changed mine back in April (2000 Z71 Silverado). I used a bottle pump that I purchased at Walmart (made the job a lot easier). I used the GM Transfer Case Fluid that I bought from the dealer. I can'r remember exactly but I think it was a couple of qts. Another thing I did was buy a couple of extra bolts. They have some white stuff that looks like teflon on the threads. I was afraid I might spring a leak. I didn't but it;s good to have them on reserve. The bottle pump also helps when chaging the rear and front axle fluids.

[bigtruck21]

Should be under 2 quarts. I applied teflon tape to the bottom plug just in case. Pumps or an adapter that screws right on the bottle and has a foot long rubber hose will make filling easier.

[foghorn23]

Well the weather finally let me get around to doing the change. Thanks for all the help. I honestly believe this is as easy as an oil change if you have a pump or flexible tube to refill the transfer case. Also, for anybody else reading this I just thought it might be worth mentioning that you might want to remove your upper plug in the fill hole before you remove (and drain) the lower hole. My luck with vehicles in the past is that every plug, fitting, filter, etc. is installed by a gorilla at the GM factory. It would really suck if someone drained the transfer case only to find they couldn't remove the fill hole plug. However, no such problem with my change; they were just nice and tight. Again thanks for all the help.

 

Vroten

[Black02Silverado]

For anyone that might read this and not done theirs yet. My 02 Auto Trac Case has 18mm drain bolts and it took just under 2 qts of fluid. The cost for me since I got it at the dealer was $6.00 a quart. I bought 3 quarts just in case.

 

I also put teflon tape on the drain plugs to prevent any leaks. The pump on the quart bottle is the way to go. As stated above fill to it runs out the top plug.

 

I took pictures and all and wrote down directions but didn't post them due to the fact that the pictures have to be put on a disk since it was with a regular 35mm camera. So once I get them back I will see about posting the procedure for all to be able to view.

 

Trying to make it easy for anyone wanting to do do their own maintenance.

[MountaineerTom]

Black02Silverado,

Put it together in the form of a guide, send it to Mervz, an he can add it to our Guide Section.

[Black02Silverado]

Great.

 

All I'm waiting on now is the pictures to come back on disk. I really need a digital camera.

 

Once I get the pictures back off to Merv it will go. It is all typed out in Microsoft Word, step by step.

 

I just hope the pictures turn out well. I'm using an old Minolta X-700.

[MountaineerTom]

You know what, now that i think about it, I think I may have sent one in a while back too, but it hasn't been posted yet. No big deal though, still send yours in, and if your pics don't turn out, let me know because I still have mine saved on my hard drive.

 

We need more people to send stuff in for the Tech Articles and Guides.