Adding transmission drain plug

[slack]

Anyone that's done it, is it worth it? I'm planning on dropping the pan on the GM soon and thought of maybe adding one while I have it off.

Also, is adding one to the stock pan okay? I saw some reviews on the plug kits saying the stock pan was too thin or something. Is it better just to buy an aftermarket one with a plug?

Thanks in advance.

[friskyfrankie]

If you are careful, you can add one to the existing pan but it does add some risks. I prefer a pan that already has one but then there is the factor of additional costs. Price it out, both ways and see where your comfort level and "gut feel" send you.

[jaywish]

I did both. Added the "uhaul" pan to the Marauder and added a B&M plug to the TC. The escape came with one from Ford. The B&M plug... I don't think I made it tight enough when installing it as it always rotates when I remove the drain plug, yet it has not leaked at all. The B&M unit seems well made. Some folks tig a nut on the inside of the pan.

[kishy]

I've put the Dorman plug on all of mine that I've touched so far. I suspect the Dorman plug is possibly "the only" one; the B&M one appears to be the same item in a different package. Hard to be completely sure of this, of course.

"Worth it"...difficult to answer.
Trans service is not a frequent occurrence. Taking the ATF shower once every, I dunno, 10 years (per car) doesn't seem like a huge inconvenience. I still opted to install them.

It adds a point of failure; the plug could back out or otherwise leak and cause you to lose your fluid.

I'm not sure that I side in favour of adding them.

I have added them only to stock pans and they've been fine. Thickness is not a concern with the common retrofit style plug as the plug does not thread into the pan itself.

[DerekTheGreat]

"Taking the ATF shower"

[gadget73]

I've done it. Not a big fan of the plastic gaskets, if you can swap them for copper crush washers it works better. If you have a torch, brazing it in makes it pretty much impossible to leak so long as your work is good. I did have some leaks with the plastic washers, they were replaced with copper and no problems. The other one I brazed in from the get-go (also one of the plastic washers was missing, which I discovered after drilling the hole and I was not motivated to wait until the next day to get copper washers) so it never had a chance to give me issues.

Put the plug at the back end of the pan. I had a dummy moment and put one up front. It still works but if you are jacking the car up from the front rather than using a lift it doesn't quite get all of the fluid.

One of mine has a Dorman, the other was some other brand but if there is any difference between them I couldn't tell you what it is. Probably just one manufacturer of these things, the only difference is who's name is on the package.

The other option if you don't want the lake of blood on your floor is to use a pump to suck the fluid out through the dipstick. I did that on my truck rather than add a drain plug, worked great until I knocked the hose out of the bucket mid-extraction and sprayed it all over the garage.

basically anything that gets the fluid out of the pan rather than dropping it full is an improvement.

[slack]

Thanks everyone! I decided I'll add the plug even though it may or may not really be worth it. I guess worst case, at least if I accidentally overfill, I don't have to drop the pan again.

I picked up some copper washers to replace the plastic ones it comes with.

I figure I'll put some red loctite on the the part that gets bolted to the pan and then either some teflon tape or blue loctite on the inner drain plug to help keep it from leaking.

Hopefully I'll be good to give this a shot sometime this coming week.

[massacre]

I remember buying the "U-Haul" pan from ADTR for my 4r70w. I sold it years ago. It was a nice piece. Never leaked

[DerekTheGreat]

If you overfill, just suck out the excess with a siphon pump and small tubing.