Bobbing for drain plugs

[Soundguy]

For those needing a good laugh!

Well, My new tranny fill plug/dipstick came in this weekend at CNH. My ford 5000, up until this point.. just had the fill plug, sans dipstick. I knew it had probably broke off and had been laying at the bottom of the trans for decades.. but hadn't found it on previous services.

I got my buckets and new oil and headed tot he barn. had my tools layed out.. creeper.. etc. Tranny drain is about 12 quarts or so. A 5g bucket won't fit under very well, and let you manipulate the tools.. so i only had a 1g bucket. Plan was.. as I have always done, is to remove the plug, ( check for accumulated water .. just for curiosity, as the plug just starts to come loose), then hold the plug close, and when the bucket gets to 75%, start screwing it back in. That works -great- untill you drop the plug into the bucket!!! The plug is large too.. a thumb doesn't quite plug the hole.. though does dramatically slow it down.

So there I was.. laying on the creeper, propped up with back against right rear tire...left thumb stuck in tranny drain... UTF generously running down my arm, while my right arm and hand were frantically searching the drain pail for the blasted plug!.. Got the plug, and got the drain plugged back up... Bucket was at 99%... At this point.. creeper only has a couple drops on it.. ( my shirt was pretty good at sopping up the excess coming down my left arm... ).. floor is clean.. amazingly.. Had to drag the drain bucket over to my 'bulk' drain ( a 55g drum i keep to fill with drain fluids.. then haul to work to have picked up with other drain oil for free ). And then i repeat the process, sans dropping the blasted plug.

In my defense.. this is not a typical hex or square headed plug.. it's one of those inverted square heads.. like for a 1/2 socket or breaker bar drive.. not much to hold on to.

On the upside, i did find the remenant of the old dipstick.. right were I thought it was.. safely in the lowest part of the sump, intact, but bent in a semicircile with a few gear marks on it.. looks like it may hve been bent by a previous owner, and when tractor moved, a gear snatched it out of the cap, drug it down the side of the housing ( low clearance.. thus bending the post ), and then depositing it into the lowest part of the sump near the drain.

it took a telescoping magnet to find the end of the stick and fish it out.. but i do feel better that it is now out.. I wouldn't want it to ride the 'train' and take any more trips thru the tranny. Previously, when i first got her, I looked at the gears.. I saw a couple with minor side chips.. but no teeth missing... nothing i havn't seen before on an antique tractor. I coulddn't find the dipstick then.. glad i found it now.

I figured a few of you may have needed the laugh.

On the upside.. the oil was nice and clean... good to know i have no water leaks.. and no metal bits came out.. that's always a plus.

After I got all the utf off, I primed and painted the new cap ( even has a FOMOCO ) logo on it.. nice.. And she now matches the rest of the tractor..

I kept thinking.. good thing this wasn't one of those 2" bung drains like a ford N has... I'd have never got the oil stopped trying to find that plug!!

Soundguy

 

[BTDT]

That's funny. I wonder if you could have used the vacuum trick to keep oil in trans. (or at least slow it down).

 

[schmism]

you know... posts like these dont have me feeling better about my impending oil change that has to happen soon....

but a funny story.... and i know the feeling cept my experience was changing out a fuel filter and having fuel run down my arm as i tried in vain to get the new one installed.

dispite washing for what seemed like hrs i still smelled of gass for the next 2 days.

 

[RobS]

Your title alone got me laughing Chris, as I've been there several times myself. Seems I used to have (key phrase... used to have), a catch pan with a rather small hole in the bottom leading to the reservoir. I can't tell you how many times the drain plug ended up in that hole. I usually drain the oil when it's warm/hot so it was always quite the fiasco trying to fish the plug out of the hot oil as it rose in the catch pan.

As I mentioned, I've since replace that pan with a much better design. This one has a much larger hole/screen where the drain plug can just sit all day long if it wants! Thanks for the humor, good to hear there were no permanent consequences.

 

[Soundguy]

you know... posts like these dont have me feeling better about my impending oil change that has to happen soon....

but a funny story.... and i know the feeling cept my experience was changing out a fuel filter and having fuel run down my arm as i tried in vain to get the new one installed.

dispite washing for what seemed like hrs i still smelled of gass for the next 2 days.

Yep... you havn't owned a tractor long enough unless you have at least one story of laying under or beside a tractor with it's vital fluids pouring out on you... while you are suposed to be fixing it.

I remember once when my fuel tank petcock on my NH 7610s plugged up.. and the tractor died out in the field... 20 gallon diesel tank... I ended up having to remove the fuel line and blow thru it, clean/replace the petcock screen and orings, and change the filter and bleed the system, all while laying in the sand and weeds out in the middle of no where. Luckilly I was well equipped and had a pair of pliers and a screwdriver in the tool box..

All i can say is that at least the diesel pouring all over me kept -MOST- of the ants off me.

I was fortunate enough to still have some diesel in the tank so I could drive the 4 miles home from the pasture.

I kept having these visions of cars flying past me on the road ( normal ) and someone tossing out a cig but and me going up in flames!!! ( only slightly funny! )


Soundguy

 

[mjarrels]

After having build my nice new garage with a nice poured cement floor, I decided to change the oil in the old ford tractor (large drain plug). Used a old plastic cat litter box to catch the old oil. Cat litter box had set outside and must have collected water and froze. Guess what happed when hot oil hit that plastic... cracked and split. FORD tractor holds more oil than anything else I own. You guessed it... SIX quarts of dirty oil on that brand new floor.

Kick the tires and lite the fires

mark

 

[firemanpat2910]

if ever a story needed pictures this is the one!!!! We will have to start a pool and pay the winning wife (or husband, signifigant other, what ever) to send us pictures. This could be better than candid camera.

 

[Iplayfarmer]

I've added this thread to my favorites. Next time I'm having a frustrating day with repairs, maintenance, etc. I'm going to look this thread up and remember that even the best of us have some of the worst days.

 

[Doc_Bob]

FORD tractor holds more oil than anything else I own. You guessed it... SIX quarts of dirty oil on that brand new floor.

mark

Well, now you have initiated the new floor and anything you spill on it will not matter. And, you have a great story.
Bob

 

[Doc_Bob]

So there I was.. laying on the creeper, propped up with back against right rear tire...left thumb stuck in tranny drain... UTF generously running down my arm, while my right arm and hand were frantically searching the drain pail for the blasted plug!..

I can understand. I think we all can. I have an old shirt that has tranny fluid stains on it from the same trauma of oil running down my arm as I searched for the plug. I was wearing those nice latex gloves at the time in a futile effort to keep my hands clean. What a farce! I had so much oil all over me and to top it off, I had to take my other gloved hand (clean) and plunge it into the bucket of tranny fluid looking for the hidden drain plug. Result was a glove full of tranny fluid. My skin has had a nice smooth glow to it ever since my total body immersion therapy.
Bob

 

[patrick_g]

And I thought I was the only one who had warm oil flowing down his arm and through the armpit, saturating a shirt. I don't need a tractor for this fun. I can do it just changing a filter on an '89 Dakota 4x4 which has a particularly difficult filter to reach and twist.

Pat

 

[Steve_Miller]

Had a good chuckle over that one, Thanks Chris.
Plastic pans are not always the best things for warm/hot oil. Years ago I filled one to the top (you always try to get it all in one smash), it was fine and dandy until the hot oil decided it would soften up the plastic enough to let it fold in the middle as I was carrying it across the floor (insert mental picture here and you probably won't be too far off). I was probably better off to just let it drain on to the floor and try to contain it there as opposed to throwing it everywhere while trying to juggle the soft pan. By the time I got a good grip on it, it was pretty much empty.

Steve

 

[DieselPower]

As a life long mechanic I know the "oil down the arm" bit a little more than I would like to. Fixed that problem a few years ago though. Got one of those 58 quart drain pans that is completly enclosed. Nice thing is if you drop the drain plug the grate in the drain hole is small enough that the plug can not fall into the pan. When your done you screw in a plug in the drain hole and can carry away up to 58 quarts of fluid. Best $70 I ever spent.

58 quart drain pan

 

[Doc_Bob]

Fixed that problem a few years ago though. Got one of those 58 quart drain pans that is completly enclosed.

That is one serious drain pain!
Bob

 

[KubotaSteve]

Chris:

I had a similar experience but was a little embarrassed to share it, but now you've opened the flood gates. (no pun intended)
I normally take the tractor to my dad's garage (3 miles away) to change fluids. The last time I went to change the oil in my B-7800, I dropped the plug in the drainpan but in the process of trying to catch it I knocked the drainpan out from underneath the stream of oil. By the time I got it back into place, half of it was on the floor. Fished for the plug, cleaned it off, then proceeded to drop it right back in the oil. 2nd time cleaned off plug, moved drain pan and put plug back in. Then put drainpan under oil filter. Trying to get better grip on oil pan, I kicked the drain pan splashing out more oil. Then when the filter was ready to come off, slipped out of my oily hands and you guessed it right in the oil drain pan. When all was said and done, out of the 5 quarts of used oil, I think I only had about a quart in the pan. My dad asked why I even bothered to get out the drain pan.

Well it was time to change the oil again, so I decided to do it in my driveway as the weather was so nice yesterday. I think I only spilled maybe a teaspoon of oil and that was even using a 2.5 gallon jug to pour the oil from. Either I'm getting better or just got lucky this time.

I couldn't imagine having 12 quarts of fluid to clean up though!!!!!

 

[Soundguy]

Yep.. sometimes it's just easier to spread out newspaper1

Speaking of oily concrete..I remember when i was repairing the hyds on my ford 8n... and an ordeal I went thru..

OK.. for starters.. an 8n is an open sump machine.. hyds, diffy, and tranny share a 5 gallon sump.

The hydro pump is a 'belly' pump, and is mounted in the lowest portion of the sump, under the hyds section, just ahead of the diffy. the pump base plate is actually the bottom of the sump.

I carefully drained the 5g's of oil out.. even let it drip during lunch.. etc. Removed the bolts around the perimeter of the base, dropped it, and another half gallon of oily sludge let loose. Seems the drain bung is ever so slightly higher than the bottom of the sump.. plus it is 90wt oil, nd there is usually 50 ys of sludge ont he bottom.. so it don't drain... well.. it does once the pump drops.. I had an oily mess on the garage floor that spread out almost 3' wide.

I put about 3 newspapers down and just kept working. took 2 days for the project.. on the 2nd day, after the wife left for work, I finished.. made sure the tractor worked.. backed her out of the garage.. tossed the papers into the trash, and then went to hand scrubbing the concrete with every detergent I could find. I actually got it 98% clean.... by the time the wife got home..

Soundguy

 

[Soundguy]

Here's a pic, as I promised.

Soundguy

 

[patrick_g]

Soundguy, That dipstick is an antique so a little wear over the years is normal. You can sell it on eBay.

Pat

 

[Soundguy]

It should fit right in.

" Shows some marks from use"

Soundguy

 

[texasjohn]

LOLROF...

Well, now I'm nervous! I have a brand new metal building, concrete floor and I HAD been looking forward to changing oil out of the weather, wind, grass and gravel. NOW, I'm visioning all the ways that my pristine concrete will get messed up. So far, my only plan is to be careful AND to use old carpet under the vehicle to soak up the (hopefully) few drips and then throw it away.

That said, I, too, have had the oil/armpit/big mess experience