2004 F-150 5.4 4x4 133,000 miles

Bought this thing about a month ago for super light, low miles duty.

Today, I changed the transfer case fluid.

Fluid: I used valvoline dex/merc auto tranny fluid. I have some full synthetic Amsoil merc/merc V, but I went with the conventional mercon in the T-Case. I was a little nervous about putting merc/merc v in the t-case. I'll use the amsoil on the auto tranny.

I cleaned the grimy tcase with engine cleaner prior to opening drain plugs.

A 3/8" socket drive fits straight into the drain and fill plugs.

I opened the fill plug first and fluid came out. Either overfilled or my driveway isn't level.

I opened the drain plug second and drained completely.

I put the drain plug back and torqued to 18 ft-lb

Then I wondered how the heck to fill the tcase. The fill hole is perpendicular to the ground. I tried a turkey baster, but that took forever. Then I cut up a couple of funnels and pieced them together into a bogus waterfall like thing that seemed to work if I went slowly.

What I really needed was a funnel with a short, flexible hose. The hose could go from the bottom of the funnel into the hole.

I couldn't get the full 2 quarts back in . I got about 1.75 quarts in. I think my driveway isn't level.

I torqued the fill plug back to 18 ft-lb and was done.

Next, I'm going to go into town (with another vehicle) and get a flex funnel. I'll drive a few hundred yards to a flat spot and top off the t-case.

The fluid looked bad. I suspect it has never been changed, which is lame because it's like a 30 minute DIY including cleanup if one has that flex funnel.

The fluid had a few small flakes of a hard yellow substance. Didn't really feel like metal or plastic. Anyone know what's in the tcase that is yellow?

-Island Truck

 

I don't know what those yellow flakes could be. I think the transfer case is one if those things that most people forget about or think that since they don't use 4wd much they don't need to change the fluid. The best thing to use to change the fluid would be a pump for a 5gal pail, but it wouold take a lifedtime to use an entire pail up, so I went to napa and bought a hand suction pump with a hose attached and this works pretty good but can be a little messy because tranny fluid is so thin it has a tendancy to leak past the seals.

 

I have a pump for fluids that will screw onto a gallon or quart size bottle. It cost about $6 from Advance Auto and is made by Performance Parts. This thing has come in handy on T-Cases and Differentials.