After way too much procrastination I got around to changing my motor oil and transmission oil. With the baja’s big tires I did not need to put it on ramps I was able to slide under for both the transmission and motor oil. While I changed the oil, I did not clean the screen, I’ll do that next time.
BLUF: This is easy and kind of fun, here are some things you might want to write down.
- Torque spec on the oil nut: 9 ft/lbs
- Torque spec on transmission bolts 14 ft/lbs
- I used 2.5 quarts of 30W oil for the motor
- I used 2.5 quarts of 75-90w Valvoline synthetic in the flex fill pack for the transmission.
- Buy the 17mm hex socket from JBugs.
The oil was easy, just a slow removal of the center bolt, and a clean of it since it is magnetic.
Now Muir advises to not go above 9 ft/lbs when tightening the drain bolt or you will hit the cam shaft. I would have yarded on it, so I am glad I checked.
That Gearwrench digital torque wrench is really nice. It buzzes when you get close to the dialed in setting (and the range of alert is tunable) plus it takes the guesswork of setting the torque spec out. I highly recommend it.
I read a few posts on TheSamba and watched a great YouTube video on changing transaxle/transmission fluid. They all recommended a pump to get the fluid from the oil jug into the trans without spilling it everywhere. I actually ordered one off of Amazon, but then I remembered a video from Fred Williams where he mentioned how much he loved these bags of transmission oil. There are no pics because this was a tricky situation. But this made it super easy, no mess and you should go for it.
The steps were:
- Remove the upper / fill 17mm plug. Do this first to make sure you can refill it before you empty the oil.
- Put your drain pan below the lower 17mm nut on the bottom of the axle
- Remove the 17mm nut
- When it is done draining put the plug back in and torque to 14 ft/lbs
- Fill the trans fluid until it spills out of the upper plug.
- Put the plug back in, torque to 14 ft/lbs
I did both the oil and the gear oil in an hour on a nice warm winter day.
Parts I used:
- 17mm hex socket: https://www.jbugs.com/product/5773.html
- Valvoline SAE30 oil https://shop.valvolineglobal.com/products/daily-protection-non-detergent-sae-30-motor-oil
- Valvoline 75-90 synthetic flex fill https://shop.valvolineglobal.com/products/flexfill-full-synthetic-gear-oil-sae-75w-90
Tools:
- Drain pan
- 17mm hex socket
- 21mm socket
- 1/2″ ratchet for drain plug
- 3/8″ ratchet
- 3/8″ 6″ extension
- Rags, lot of rags