so **** didn't go as planned....

[jamaican]

got the car up.. found speedo cable, took it out. started to feel very confident

tried to unbolt the tranny drain plug... 7/8" was a tad bit too small, and 15/16 was a tad bit too big... wtf? i used an adjustable one (forgot the name), tried, tried, and tried... couldn't get it loose, tried some more until my hand slipped and hit something.. then started to bleed.... ok i'll move on to something else

tried to remove the little screw for the balljoints, couldn't get that out either. i didn't really want to try too hard cuz i was scared my hand would slip again

i ended just putting in about half a liter of royal purple, just cuz i thought the tranny fluid was low

i give up

[Pox]

Try again tomarrow. :< Nice boo-boo btw.

ps, Congrats on your 501st post.

[MazKid]

got the car up.. found speedo cable, took it out. started to feel very confident

tried to unbolt the tranny drain plug... 7/8" was a tad bit too small, and 15/16 was a tad bit too big... wtf? i used an adjustable one (forgot the name), tried, tried, and tried... couldn't get it loose, tried some more until my hand slipped and hit something.. then started to bleed.... ok i'll move on to something else

tried to remove the little screw for the balljoints, couldn't get that out either. i didn't really want to try too hard cuz i was scared my hand would slip again

i ended just putting in about half a liter of royal purple, just cuz i thought the tranny fluid was low

i give up

Mazda uses metric bolts on thier cars...the bolt you were trying to get was a 17mm IIRC. Just a heads up for when you try it again.

[viper_707]

u wuss, get your ass back out there and try again

[1967cutlass]

IIRC i use a 7/8" for the tranny plug.

[jamaican]

i need one of them power tools to unbolt it

[Tazman2]

i need one of them power tools to unbolt it

U mean strip it and screw urself even more?!

[Jho]

got the car up.. found speedo cable, took it out. started to feel very confident

tried to unbolt the tranny drain plug... 7/8" was a tad bit too small, and 15/16 was a tad bit too big... wtf? i used an adjustable one (forgot the name), tried, tried, and tried... couldn't get it loose, tried some more until my hand slipped and hit something.. then started to bleed.... ok i'll move on to something else

tried to remove the little screw for the balljoints, couldn't get that out either. i didn't really want to try too hard cuz i was scared my hand would slip again

i ended just putting in about half a liter of royal purple, just cuz i thought the tranny fluid was low

i give up

Ouch man, nice knuckle buster.

The tranny drain plug is a 23 mm.

Don't guess on how much fluid is in your tranny. Did it make a difference in the shifting?

[jamaican]

no noticeable difference

btw... is filling the tranny the same as filling engine oil, or wiper fluid? as in if you have too much engine oil you can blow seals etc... but nothing's wrong if you have too much wiper fluid... know what i mean?

is it bad to have too much fluid? or do you guys just fill up until you see it's about to over flow

yea i know the limit is about 3 quarts or so

[92dx]

man dude... do you read your fsm, or just look at the pictures? lol.

I guess you just need a little more practice. You shouldnt give up tho.

how I do the ball joints when doing what your trying to do is not remove them from the knuckle....

I remove the bolts that hold the ball joint to the control arm, pry them from eachother, and now your seperated. To get them back together just use a 5" C clamp, get the stud on the ball joint end in the hole in the control arm a bit, then get your clamp on there and tighten till they come together, than put on the nuts and bolt and tighten.

you cant use standard size tools on a car made in japan...you can, I guess...but it just aint right!

[jamaican]

i was using mm tools all the time... 10mm to 13mm throughout most of the engine bay... i just couldn't find any mm tools big enough, so i used the other ones, or at least tried

the only thing that was stopping me was just the bolts being too tight, apart from that i could've done it

[Turpro]

Mmmmmm. Who's got their grill goin cause I see a nice piece of meat. Like said b4,don't be a puss. Wounds will heal,tranni fluid will keep getting old. wish I could help but I've only replaced my tranni fluid 1 time and that was about 3 yrs ago in my old pro. I had my clutch replaced a few months back so the shop did the fluid but I'm going to replace the fluid in it cause it doesn't feel as good as it did b4 the change,and my balljoints were done by a shop that put my polys in.

[Tazman2]

If the bolts are too tight you get a bigger wrench problem solved. Just remember if the socket is a smidge too loose it WILL strip the bolt so be pretty damn sure its the right size before you go all out "he man" on it!

PS: Also the other quirk to bigger wrenchs is that the tool might now move alot more on the end with the bolt and thus create new problems including stripping as well so you have to pay attention to **** like that. I usually hold it on the bolt with one hand and then the other hand on the "breaker" bar! So in the end the bolt with either loosen or break. Something will freakin happen!

[SleptWithURWife]

Jamaican, I want your car!

Once I ripped off half my nail when trying to get that coolant plug on the engine block under the exaust mani. It broke loose and my hand smashed into the back of the rad fan. I said a few choise words, spit on the car, got a band-aid and went back to work.

[Jho]

no noticeable difference

btw... is filling the tranny the same as filling engine oil, or wiper fluid? as in if you have too much engine oil you can blow seals etc... but nothing's wrong if you have too much wiper fluid... know what i mean?

is it bad to have too much fluid? or do you guys just fill up until you see it's about to over flow

yea i know the limit is about 3 quarts or so

You want to fill the tranny to the proper level.