Trans Fluid pt II
I pulled the drain plug on the trans, then removed the pan. The torque converter also has a drain plug. I thought the torque converter would be inside the trans pan area but it's separate. In fact, the area where the leak is is where the TC is located.
You rotate the flywheel until the TC drain plug appears in the open area of the grates. After about 20 min of going under the front of the engine to rotate the flywheel and then crawling under the center of the car to look at the trans and not finding the drain plug, I asked my neighbor to watch for the drain plug while I turned the flywheel. It took a quarter turn for it to appear. I thanked my neighbor for his help.
I drained the torque converter and let the trans drip overnight. The existing fluid didn't look too bad - had a nice red look to it. The old filter didn't look very dirty either. The next day I cleaned up the parts, put the new pan gasket on the pan, and put everything back together, including a new filter.
Now for the hard part - refilling the trans. Porsche in their infinite wisdom put the reservoir next to the trans and also next to a muffler. And unlike a normal car, there isn't an easy way to access the reservoir unless you crawl under the car. To fill it, you have to remove the reservoir cap, fill the trans, start the car and let the torque converter fill, add more fluid, then run the car thru each gear, fill again, and then put the cap on before shutting the engine off. If you shut the engine off before putting the cap on, fluid will gush out. However, the cap is at an odd angle and tough to put on under ideal conditions, but you'll be dealing with a hot trans and an even hotter muffler. I wasn't looking forward to that and procrastinated a few days.
I posted on RL to see if there was another way. Turns out there is. Porsche put a 90 deg port on the trans with a check valve.
With the proper attachment, you can connect a hose to the port and push the trans fluid in. But I don't have the proper attachment. Someone said you could attach a hose with a clamp. It just so happens the tube I used to fill the trans on my Cayman fit nicely on the port. I put a small hose clamp on it. Would the fluid push the check valve open or would it squirt out the end of the hose? I'd just purchased a giant syringe from Pelican and it came with 2 lines - a solid and a flexible line.
The solid line fit right inside my trans tube, so I attached it to the hose with a hose clamp. I put the flexible line into the gallon of trans fluid (it requires 2 gallons). I'd connect to the flexible line, draw a syringe full of fluid, then attach it to the fill hose. First try worked like a charm - no spilled fluid and the check valve opened. It all went in the trans. I pumped the 1st gallon into the trans. That filled the reservoir to a good level.
Time to start the engine, which sucked a bunch of fluid into the torque converter. Put 2 more quarts in after starting the engine. Ran her thru the gears. Put another quart in and ran it thru the gears again. Put another quart in. Shut the engine off. The reservoir was at the proper level and didn't leak.
While the engine was running, I checked for gas leaks. No leaks around the injectors and the fuel pump was dry too.
I planned on replacing the high pressure power steering hose while she's on the ramps. Should be simple - a banjo bolt on ea end of the hose. But I did some research and found you have to remove the alternator to get to the front bolt of the hose. And to remove the alternator, you have to unbolt the fan shroud and move it up so 1 of the alternator bolts can be removed. To get to the rear hose bolt, you have to remove the sway bar hold down and let the sway bar swing down. I might sleep on that job (for a few days).
Next up are the plug wires and the last fuel line replacement.