As some of you know, I'm picking up my 95 U295 today! My plan is to change all the fluids as soon as I can. I'm curious on the transmission if there's room to funnel the oil into the reservoir or if you can do it from the engine bay at the tranny dip stick (it's a fairly large hole)? If not, then I guess I'll need to pump it in?
I used a 2 litre pop bottle with bottom cut off (funnel) and a a three foor piece of 5/8 hose duct taped together. I wired the funnel to the open engine door and a step ladder. Two and a half gallon fluid containers was all I could handle, but it did not take long.
Getting the fluid level correct was the tricky part, requires warm (after driving) and engine running. I installed a litres less than capacity listed so I had to add 1.5 litres.
Easiest way is to buy about 5' of cheap clear plastic hose. Put the 5 gallon pail on a ladder or the roof. Start a siphon and run all but a quart into the fill tube. Check and top off if needed. This is not only easiest, but least likely to get dirt into the transmission.
Brett
Ralph has some good info in this thread
Time for fluid change (http://www.foreforums.com/index.php?topic=13153.0)
Yup, good photos-- same thing I do. Beats the heck out of trying to pour from that 5 gallon pail and taking a chance of getting a lot of dirt in the transmission.
Brett
I just lifted the bed, set the 5 gallon pail on the top of the bed frame, used a 1/4" plastic hose into the dip stick tube, and blew into the pail to start the siphon. Came back the next day pail was empty trans was all but filled. Gam
Eight dollar drill driven pump from Autozone. Pumped the old out into a five gallon bucket, pumped the new in. Ten minutes. Also useful for hyd reservoir. In both cases drain plugs were pulled once pumped out to get the last fluid. I find using the pump to really help with minimizing mess and managing old fluid into buckets.
Chuck
So took the RV for a more extensive test drive. I don't have too much experience with larger vehicles. To me, I thought the transmission up shifted and downshifted a little hard in some gears. I originally planned on changing my own fluids but I think I may have an Allison service center do the tranny and check it out. I wish I had a better reference point to gauge whether it might be a problem or not. Anyone in the Austin area with more experience than that might want to go for a test drive sometime in the next 7-10 days?
Best Regards,
Benjie
Benjie Zeller
(512) 587-4628
Chuck,
I agree, it is a great way to drain a hydraulic reservoir (as is a simple siphon).
But, you can not successfully drain all the fluid from an Allison 3000 or 4000 by using a pump with a pickup down the fill tube. And you will still have to drop the two internal filters (i.e. get under there anyway). The Allison drain plug is easy to access and I just slip a Rubbermade tub under it (lined with black plastic trash sack).
I have been using the same type of pump Chuck mentions to great success since reading about it on a post from Barry b. Simple, clean and faily fast.
John