[slimbelly]

Am I the dumbest DIYer on this forum

It's almost 3 years ago. I changed the transmission fluid on my ML430. I drained the oil in the transfer case as well. As I could not find the refill plug, I thought the transfer case might get the oil from transmission directly. In other words, I did not refill oil to the transfer case.

While I was browsing the forum recently, I realized that the transfer case has been running without lubrication for 3 years. I couldn't concentrate on my work. I took off early and bought two bottles of ATF and filled it to the transfer case right away. Two days later, I changed the oil again to clean up the transfer case. What a relief when I saw the drained oil. It's a little dark all right. But, that's it. I don't think there is much permanent damage.

It is hard to find the refill plug. It's on the other side of the drain plug and behand some extroded part of the transfer case.

Here is the photo of the drained oil.

Any newbies care to share your interesting stories?

 

[FAR888]

Interesting post slimbelly!

I never attempt DIY since in my case it usually stands for Damage-It-Yourself.

Could someone please explain how what he has described is possible with no apparent damage?

Whilst you are at it, could you please describe the function of the transfer case?

 

[[email protected]]

ok...that might have me beat...years ago my girlfriend and i decided to do her father a favor and change his oil. we changed the filter, drained out the old oil...and then added the required 5 quarts of new oil. sorry to say we forgot to put in the drain plug. so 5 quarts of fresh new clean oil went right down the center of the driveway...this does not beat my two most embarrassing moments both which are non-automotive so i will stop here...

 

[JBow]

Interesting post slimbelly!

I never attempt DIY since in my case it usually stands for Damage-It-Yourself.

Could someone please explain how what he has described is possible with no apparent damage?

Whilst you are at it, could you please describe the function of the transfer case?

I have no idea why his transfer case was not destroyed. That is hard to believe. He should go buy lottery tickets right now ! The purpose of the TC (to put it simply) is to split the driving forces from the back of the transmission in two opposite directions to send power to the front and rear differentials. It also supplys the gear reduction for low range operation. Its pretty much a gear box with two big sprockets and a heavy duty chain inside. I have seen them fail and break the chain and explode the case. Why this did not happen to one that has been run dry for three years is beyond me. The only thing that comes to mind is that it was never off road or operated in snow etc so the TC was not put under any heavy load conditions.

 

[megadamp]

Don't thing you managed to drain it last time slim. Otherwise that stuff in the picture would be black as a monkeys dick.

 

[Mike's ML]

Otherwise that stuff in the picture would be black as a monkeys dick.

Quite descriptive!!
Mike

 

[slimbelly]

Don't thing you managed to drain it last time slim. Otherwise that stuff in the picture would be black as a monkeys dick.

You are saying that I am so dumb that I don't even know that I drained the transfer case? I am pretty sure that I am a little brighter than that.

 

[APKhaos]

Bodger's first law of transmissions: Don't drain the oil until you have removed the refill plug.

Might now need to be amended to read "until you have found and removed the refill plug"
Countless guys have drained the trans only to find that they can't remove the refill plug. Happens all the time on 911s, especially the older models.

If someone is brave enough to open a thread on 'fessing up to your worst DIY disasters' I'll bet there are some funny ones out there. I've got a few. Slim's example here is not the disaster it should have been. If what he says is true its more like a miracle.

 

[Brettriehl101]

You are saying that I am so dumb that I don't even know that I drained the transfer case? I am pretty sure that I am a little brighter than that.

doesn't sound like it since you think you drove it for 3 years with no fluid in it...
that thing should have been destroyed with no fluid in it.

 

[Planethill]

Along the lines of forgetting about oil....my wife has a rather ditzy girlfriend that recently got married. Her new husband asked her how often she changed the oil in her nearly five year old car.

<long pause> "You are supposed to do that?" was her reply.

Yup. Four + years on the factory oil fill. He was stunned to find that she wasn't more than about a quart low and black as tar. After the change the car still seems to be running fine with about 80,000 miles.

I told him he should submit the story to the manufacture!

 

[FAR888]

Okay, is there really a need for us all to jump on the guy like this?

HE HIMSELF posted the thread outlining his mistake which shows humility, self-deprecation and humour on his part.

Let's leave it at that.

You are saying that I am so dumb that I don't even know that I drained the transfer case? I am pretty sure that I am a little brighter than that.

doesn't sound like it since you think you drove it for 3 years with no fluid in it...
that thing should have been destroyed with no fluid in it.

 

[Michael Pillay]

I think we all have a story of something we did when working on our cars that was not exactly the smartest move. I have to agree with going out and buying a lottery ticket! Luck seems to be on your side.

 

[Steveh1226]

OK, so here goes my dumb story:

A couple of months ago, I replaced the back rotors, parking brake shoes and the rear brake pads. To make the required parking brake adjustments, I needed to put the ML in neutral and release the parking brake. This is required because you need to be able to turn the rotor by hand to adjust the parking brake cable to the correct tension.

Anyway, everything was very safe because the vehicle was up on the jack and also jack stands for extra security. The problem occured after I was finished doing all of the work, and I took the ML off of the jack stands and the jack without first putting the vehicle back in park. I realized quickly what had happened as I lowered down the back wheel and the truck started to roll backwards out of my garage down my sloping driveway!

I quickly ran behind the ML and stopped it from rolling which was not easy because the damned thing weighs about 4500 lbs. I began yelling for someone to help and my neighbor who was luckily walking by came running and held the truck while I jumped in quickly and put it into park!

That was a very scary experience that I will not forget. It will also never happen again!

 

[FAR888]

Scary stuff!

^^^^OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[slimbelly]

OK, so here goes my dumb story:

A couple of months ago, I replaced the back rotors, parking brake shoes and the rear brake pads. To make the required parking brake adjustments, I needed to put the ML in neutral and release the parking brake. This is required because you need to be able to turn the rotor by hand to adjust the parking brake cable to the correct tension.

Anyway, everything was very safe because the vehicle was up on the jack and also jack stands for extra security. The problem occured after I was finished doing all of the work, and I took the ML off of the jack stands and the jack without first putting the vehicle back in park. I realized quickly what had happened as I lowered down the back wheel and the truck started to roll backwards out of my garage down my sloping driveway!

I quickly ran behind the ML and stopped it from rolling which was not easy because the damned thing weighs about 4500 lbs. I began yelling for someone to help and my neighbor who was luckily walking by came running and held the truck while I jumped in quickly and put it into park!

That was a very scary experience that I will not forget. It will also never happen again!

Too bad, it's one day late. It would be a much better story if we can read it on 10/31, the Halloween.

 

[lyleswk]

I've never done anything like this.


Okay, I'm lying through my teeth. Mine haven't been on cars, but just as scary. Tried hard to burn my garage down one time...

 

[Maytag]

back in the day, I hurried through a clutch replacement on my wife's VW Cabriolet. The sun was going down as I completed the chore, with only refilling the transaxle with fluid to finish-up.

I poked around for a second and found a green plastic plug with a large hex head near the top of the transaxle. I pulled said plug and dumped 2 qts of 90wt down the hole before I saw fluid draining down the driveway behind the car.
As it turned-out, I had just bathed the brand-new clutch in 90wt through the "clutch-inspection-cover".

 

[nate430]

you got hella lucky lol

 

[Michael Pillay]

OK, so here goes my dumb story:

A couple of months ago, I replaced the back rotors, parking brake shoes and the rear brake pads. To make the required parking brake adjustments, I needed to put the ML in neutral and release the parking brake. This is required because you need to be able to turn the rotor by hand to adjust the parking brake cable to the correct tension.

Anyway, everything was very safe because the vehicle was up on the jack and also jack stands for extra security. The problem occured after I was finished doing all of the work, and I took the ML off of the jack stands and the jack without first putting the vehicle back in park. I realized quickly what had happened as I lowered down the back wheel and the truck started to roll backwards out of my garage down my sloping driveway!

I quickly ran behind the ML and stopped it from rolling which was not easy because the damned thing weighs about 4500 lbs. I began yelling for someone to help and my neighbor who was luckily walking by came running and held the truck while I jumped in quickly and put it into park!

That was a very scary experience that I will not forget. It will also never happen again!

Reminds me of 20+ years ago when the parking brake failed on our VW bug and I had to chase it down a sloping road in South Africa.

 

[cmitch]

It's almost 3 years ago. I changed the transmission fluid on my ML430. I drained the oil in the transfer case as well. As I could not find the refill plug, I thought the transfer case might get the oil from transmission directly. In other words, I did not refill oil to the transfer case.

While I was browsing the forum recently, I realized that the transfer case has been running without lubrication for 3 years. I couldn't concentrate on my work. I took off early and bought two bottles of ATF and filled it to the transfer case right away. Two days later, I changed the oil again to clean up the transfer case. What a relief when I saw the drained oil. It's a little dark all right. But, that's it. I don't think there is much permanent damage.

It is hard to find the refill plug. It's on the other side of the drain plug and behand some extroded part of the transfer case.

Here is the photo of the drained oil.

Any newbies care to share your interesting stories?

In the DIY sticky in this forum, I have a pictorial of changing transfer fluid along with an arrow pointing to the refill plug. As for not destroying your TC, I don't know how you got by.