I decided to bite the bullet and buy the 8 speed dipstick listed on Ebay. It had lots of good reviews, so I gave it a whirl.
Just finished installing it ....... pretty simple.
1. Remove heat shield on RH side of tran. 1 side bolt, remove front upper, and loosen rear upper. Pivot shield down.
2. Remove 2nd bell housing bolt from bottom on RH side.
3. Blow off area behind heat shield with compressed air and pop out fill plug
4. Push in dipstic gasket with some ATF as lube after removed from pipe.
5. Finagle the dipstick in and up. It goes right next to the firewall above number 8 spark plug wire. Remove dipstick from tube first!!
6. Reassemble and pat yourself on the back
7. Drive truck til hot and park on level surface.
8. Use magnetic level on frame and raise front of truck until level to simulate lift.
9. Pull full stand pipe plug on LH front of trans and see what comes out.
10. Pour in new fluid until it exits full plug.
11. Install plug and check dipstick for reference. I found that mine is at the top of the COLD area, bottom of HOT when it exits the stand pipe.
Now I can service my trans and not worry about a nincompoop at the dealership doing it wrong and leaving it low on fluid to cavitate the pump.....speaking from experience - 1 year ago.
I would definitely recommend to anyone interested. The seller on EBAY was great. I had to tweak the mounting ear for the bell housing bolt to fit best, but it's a simple install.
Just finished installing it ....... pretty simple.
1. Remove heat shield on RH side of tran. 1 side bolt, remove front upper, and loosen rear upper. Pivot shield down.
2. Remove 2nd bell housing bolt from bottom on RH side.
3. Blow off area behind heat shield with compressed air and pop out fill plug
4. Push in dipstic gasket with some ATF as lube after removed from pipe.
5. Finagle the dipstick in and up. It goes right next to the firewall above number 8 spark plug wire. Remove dipstick from tube first!!
6. Reassemble and pat yourself on the back
7. Drive truck til hot and park on level surface.
8. Use magnetic level on frame and raise front of truck until level to simulate lift.
9. Pull full stand pipe plug on LH front of trans and see what comes out.
10. Pour in new fluid until it exits full plug.
11. Install plug and check dipstick for reference. I found that mine is at the top of the COLD area, bottom of HOT when it exits the stand pipe.
Now I can service my trans and not worry about a nincompoop at the dealership doing it wrong and leaving it low on fluid to cavitate the pump.....speaking from experience - 1 year ago.
I would definitely recommend to anyone interested. The seller on EBAY was great. I had to tweak the mounting ear for the bell housing bolt to fit best, but it's a simple install.
