Tall Tales of a Short 2004 118"

Change Transmission Fluid
Ordered all the material from Europarts SD, which included the fluid, filter, pan gasket, two new seals and lock pin. Purchased extra the adapter plug for the electrical connection. Drove front wheels on ramp and drained the torque convertor and pan. Nothing too tight or hard to get to, other than the low crossmember under the torque converter that was kinda in the way.

Here's my pan:



There were some metal flakes in the pan as well as a light whitish "slime" that someone else had mentioned having. Not sure what it was but cleaned up everything reinstalled. One hiccup I had was with the transmission plug adapter, as it wouldn't slide in. Here's a pic



Left is new, right is old. Seals were removed when I compared them. Notice how the slots are misaligned. I'm not sure why this is the case, but the old one would slide very easily into the connection while the new one wouldn't. After a while, I just put the new seals on the old plug. No issue installing it in and carefully torqued to specs.

Filling the fluid was a bit of a pain. Slow going, compared to engine oil. Started with 6.5 liters and after turning on, doing gear shifts in place and letting it idle for a few minutes, checked again and ending up filling to 7 liters, just like the service manual spec'd. With the new fluid, I'm hoping that I'll notice a reduction in RSN....

With that done, I removed the thin ply cargo headliner and fiberglass insulation, to start prepping the interior for new racking and paneling. Same time, considering the electrical layout, mainly the solar/battery/inverter combo, wiring run, final install location, yadayadayada...

Pioneer 3400NEX head unit delivered, along with sub and rear camera. Waiting on 4" JBL to replace dashboard speakers.

ReGULT51 said:

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Left is new, right is old. Seals were removed when I compared them. Notice how the slots are misaligned. I'm not sure why this is the case, but the old one would slide very easily into the connection while the new one wouldn't. After a while, I just put the new seals on the old plug. No issue installing it in and carefully torqued to specs.

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Click to expand...

You are comparing reversed. Assuming that the lock rings are in the same position, if held in the proper orientation, the slots appear to be the same.

The fastener can keep the connector body from inserting. Some claim that the plastic connector body can distort over time. For that reason they recommend changing the entire unit out.

This is my method for installation.

Aqua Puttana said:

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Added:
I have some tips for the Connector Body install.
Don't use the bolt to try and pull the connector into place. The bolt threads into a fitting on the circuit board. It is fragile.
Align and push the connector body in as far as it will go. After mostly in, use your fingers with the 7 mm socket to thread the bolt in until finger snug.

Note: The bolt sticking out prevents full seating. Screwing in the bolt finger tight and just pushing on the connector may yield similar results as my screwdriver levering method. The leverage made me feel better about fully seating without any strain on the circuit board screw mount.

Hold a kinda long chunk tip of a 2x2 against the tranny housing recess. Use a large screwdriver against that to lever/move the connector body in without forcing. Use the socket and your fingers to turn the screw in again. It should turn in some. Alternate the screwdriver pressure to opposite sides of the connector.
Repeat the above procedure until the screw no longer turns in using your fingers.
Use a ratchet handle to snug the bolt in. Try the 2x2 and screwdriver lever procedure one last time. Check that the bolt is still snug. If snug, you are done. DO NOT OVERTIGHTEN.

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Click to expand...

vic

After you mentioned it, it is reversed, so possibly that had an effect. However, I tried rotating it, moving it around, placed pressure on it and it never slid in as easily or completely as the original. I thought it was perhaps the seals were making the entry too tight, but without seals didn't make a difference. Maybe I just needed to rotate a bit more to find the proper orientation. Never even got to the point where it was deep enough in to engage the bolt to the thread.

I'll keep an eye on it and hope it doesn't leak. The original plug didn't look distorted so I'm thinking it'll work fine with the new seals in place.

Aqua Puttana said:

You are comparing reversed. Assuming that the lock rings are in the same position, if held in the proper orientation, the slots appear to be the same.

The fastener can keep the connector body from inserting. Some claim that the plastic connector body can distort over time. For that reason they recommend changing the entire unit out.

This is my method for installation.



vic

Click to expand...

EDIT: Looks like that tube is a drain hose. From a prior thread:
"That my friend looks like the drain hose venting liquids that might be dwelling in the valley formed around where the injectors sit in the head .
Obviously lifting the black plastic injector cover above the head will reveal if there are leaks--usually fuel.
Dennis"

Doesn't smell like diesel fuel but at least I know where to start looking, especially since I recently repaired black death on two injectors.

The info on this forum is awesome!

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Looking underneath the van, I noticed that one side looked coated in moisture of some kind. It felt more like water vs oil, doesn't smell like fuel, or anything really, but does have a slight blackish hue in it's clarity. Here's a pic of how it looks driver vs. passenger:





Notice on the driver side photo the residual spotting on the ground. Van was parked for a couple hours at this point, having been driven about 100 (mostly freeway) miles.

When fueling up this morning, something that looked like water was coming out of this tube near the torque converter (sorry-photo should be rotated 90 deg. CW):





With the recent transmission fluid change, I noticed this tube and thought something was disconnected. Later reading (can't find post anymore) I recall seemed to indicate it's a ventilation tube, but I'm not sure for what and if this is normal. My guess is that the discharge from this tube is sufficiently prolific to spray on the driver side undercarriage . Any ideas or thoughts would be helpful. Thanks!

I decided to tackle a few things this weekend. Since my antenna is busted, I ordered a replacement and figured now would be a good time to drop the headliner. At least on the short roof, it's actually accessible from the dome light, so no need to drop the headliner, but I wanted to install the driver and passenger side grab handles and need to mount the supporting hardware. I'm also going to run a couple extra wire runs to the dome, for future expansion. With easy access to the roof, I ran my rear camera wires up high over the driver door too.

I installed a new radio, to replace the non-OEM deck. A Pioneer AVH-3400NEX now occupies the space.



Even with all the wires in back, it wasn't too hard to get everything to fit back there. The biggest pain was running the wires from the unit to the subwoofer behind driver seat, rear view cam wires, USB outlet and phone mic. There are small channels near the rear of the radio space that connect to the driver cluster. I ran the sub RCA interconnects on the passenger side, behind the airbag. A-pillar trims were removed to get to the front speakers - replaced OEM with JBL Club4020. Trimmed the tabs off and used butyl tape to secure.

Photo above you can also see the Proclip phone mount holder. I like that vent access isn't hampered.

Mic is attached with butyl tape to the steering pod, right below cluster. I also installed a USB access point for the radio on one of the blanks. I also purchased an OEM accessory light switch, which is wired to the rear camera signal. I flip the switch and the display goes to rear camera mode. I was replacing both driver and passenger side bezels due to broken vents, so just felt like the right time to do all this work.



JBL powered sub sits behind driver seat. Taps into the EK1 power block under the seat and accessed the ground point there also. RCA ran under passenger side to floor, behind jack and under rubber floor along rear behind seats.

Head unit is pretty nice. Retractable screen with CarPlay, which gives me nav and all phone stuff. I had to repair the chopped up antenna cable and my external mic cable snagged while fishing through and tore it. Other than that, just laborious, but happy that it's done and very pleased with the sound. Of course, given there was hardly anything before, anything would be a step up

Thanks again to everyone on the forum with so much posted info - it was all helpful to make the job easier!

*UPDATE*
My upcoming lists of things I'd like to eventually get to:

- add MLV to the doors and other parts (psgr door done)
*DONE* - replace the driver and passenger bezel to fix the broken air vents
- get the AC recharged and pray that there are no leaks
*DONE* - add Proclip phone mount
*DONE* - add new head unit w/ CarPlay along with new 4" speakers and powered sub.
- repair minor rust and repaint in original color
- build van racking out of 8020 extruded aluminium to accommodate tool box and supply storage.
- add solar and battery system for onboard AC power
- add roof venting and LED lighting
*NEW* - repair fuel leak injector wells