The 8 speed oil change thread

[hemihustlin]

A 3 ton jack should be plenty adequate to lift the truck however "high" you need to obtain level. PLEASE be careful of Chinese made jacks and jack stands. These are budget friendly, but not necessarily good for your longevity/ good health. I've had several Chinese jacks suddenly fail and drop a vehicle very fast, over the almost 5 decades I've been a professional mechanic. The jack stands you show in the photos scare the hell out of me, frankly. I've been damned lucky. I have had a few instances where I worked under a vehicle and got out from underneath to go do something, and, while I was out from under the car, the jack stands suddenly failed and dropped the load (vehicle). I bought several of the floor jacks from Sam's and they all failed prematurely. One mercifully just stopped being able to lift a car. Two were far more ominous, though. They got a little age on them and would suddenly fail hydraulically and drop a vehicle while jacking.

Those cheap jacks and stands are made in one of many locations in the South China Sea. They are the ilk of the ones that Harbor Freight sells/sold when that poor design/quality failed and dropped loads (cars/trucks). One poor guy was egregiously hurt when those jack stands dropped his truck on him. That, among several other incidents became highly publicized and forced Harbor freight to issue a recall.

I now own 2 of the 3 ton Hein Werner floor jacks. Model #HW93652. These are NOT budget friendly, but, then, I figure that my life and welfare are worth the expense, and I justify the expense by NOT getting hurt! .

I bought a pair of Gray tool company jack stands Model 3TF; also NOT budget friendly, but, ditto my thoughts above! They are located in St. Joseph, Mo. 1-800-821-7320 (Grayusa.com) These products are made right here in the USA.
These jack stands absolutely put to shame ANY of the ones sold from big box store. THEY ARE NOT CHEAP! But, anytime I'm going to crawl under a big heavy truck like yours, these jack stands get their due work out.

After reading about the failures of jack stands all over the internet, and given my experiences and close calls over the years, I invested in myself. Now, when I perform a hazardous task such as jacking a vehicle and supporting that 6,000+ pound beast, I know I am much safer than when I used the budget friendly jacking and supporting equipment.

I completely agree, however for the record those in the photo are the 7 ton NAPA brand jackstands. while probably made in china they were fine and much bigger and beefier than my Canadian tire 3 tons, which I would not have been comfortable with because even if they were high enough they would have been maxed out and unsafe. these 7 tons were around half up.

 

[Sherman Bird]

I completely agree, however for the record those in the photo are the 7 ton NAPA brand jackstands. while probably made in china they were fine and much bigger and beefier than my Canadian tire 3 tons, which I would not have been comfortable with because even if they were high enough they would have been maxed out and unsafe. these 7 tons were around half up.

Yeah, I hear ya. Look closely at WHERE the weld is that holds the 2 halves together. Oh, 2 halves? Uh huh. This weld is the Achille's heel of this design. and the reason HF had to recall their Far East el-cheapos! . The particular brand I chose was due to engineering and design to eliminate the weak areas. I am not concerned with the rating of capacity. 3 ton is overkill for only one end of a 3 ton truck. No, The design is flawed. That pawl is a weak point, the I-beam adjustable saddle is very unstable.
And putting the saddle under the skinny sway bar bracket? ohh my!

I've known several guys who were long in tooth in the industry that have died over the years, and several others who've been badly injured. Safety is boring and folks think that it can't or wont happen to them.

Napa doesn't make tools. They're from China.

 

[hemihustlin]

Yeah, I hear ya. Look closely at WHERE the weld is that holds the 2 halves together. Oh, 2 halves? Uh huh. This weld is the Achille's heel of this design. and the reason HF had to recall their Far East el-cheapos! . The particular brand I chose was due to engineering and design to eliminate the weak areas. I am not concerned with the rating of capacity. 3 ton is overkill for only one end of a 3 ton truck. No, The design is flawed. That pawl is a weak point, the I-beam adjustable saddle is very unstable.
And putting the saddle under the skinny sway bar bracket? ohh my!

I've known several guys who were long in tooth in the industry that have died over the years, and several others who've been badly injured. Safety is boring and folks think that it can't or wont happen to them.

good point on the welded halves. now ill be on the lookout for better made stands in the future thanks!

next change will probably be on a garage lift, I have recently changed jobs.

 

[Sherman Bird]

good point on the welded halves. now ill be on the lookout for better made stands in the future thanks!

next change will probably be on a garage lift, I have recently changed jobs.

Buy a Rotary lift. Among the Best in the industry. Mohawk lifts are good too. Do NOT skimp on the lift. The stakes are MUCH higher, literally and figuratively!

 

[Cruzrs]

I did mine yesterday 08/31/24 in a similar fashion with good results but excessive time for cooling down the transmission. With that said, I know many people who aren't fans of other brands are not interested in this, but you got to hand it to Saturn's team for having their transmission with a drain plug and spin on filter. This was a brilliant idea and made changing fluid and filter as easy as engine oil. Why in the name of sanity hasn't our big 3 or the rest of the automotive industry done this simple thing? Put magnets in the spin on filter and the oil plug.

 

[BenchTest]

I did mine yesterday 08/31/24 in a similar fashion with good results but excessive time for cooling down the transmission. With that said, I know many people who aren't fans of other brands are not interested in this, but you got to hand it to Saturn's team for having their transmission with a drain plug and spin on filter. This was a brilliant idea and made changing fluid and filter as easy as engine oil. Why in the name of sanity hasn't our big 3 or the rest of the automotive industry done this simple thing? Put magnets in the spin on filter and the oil plug.

They don't make them readily serviceable for a reason.

 

[JHoward]

Ok, I got off my dead tail a few weeks ago and did just an "top off/fill" on my tranny.

I'll perform the transmission oil/pan/filter soon, but knowing that the collision center that had my truck for six months for "off the frame restoration" repairs, didn't have a clue how to refill my 8 speed tranny.

I should have performed at least a "fill/top off" when I got my truck back, but didn't, I waited a few months ...

Sometimes, my tranny wouldn't down shift all the way to first gear after coming to an complete stop, still in second, and would lug a little when taking off, then down shift to first and drive normal ... something was wrong.

I checked the transmission oil at the fill plug while the truck was sitting normal and the tranny temp cool, no fluid came out. So, I used my @Wild one's one gallon garden sprayer set up and put in one full quart of tranny fluid, nothing coming back out. Got a second quart of tranny fluid and started filling again, about twenty seconds later, tranny fluid came out of the fill hole.

Ok, jacked the truck up leveling the transmission on jack stands/floor jack and begin filling the tranny again with the tranny still cool, tranny fluid came out after about another twenty seconds.

Put the plug in and went through the transmission fill procedure and finally got the transmission full ... solid two quarts ...

So, no. The collision center didn't refill my tranny when the had everything torn apart and it's my fault if my tranny explodes in the near future, lol.

I talked personally to the owner of the collision center repair shop about the tedious procedure on the 8 speed transmission refill ... he had the look of an deer being spotlighted at night, no clue, whatsoever.

Fwiw, my tranny is back to normal, it was acting up from being low on transmission fluid and all is good again ... I hope.

 

[Wild one]

Ok, I got off my dead tail a few weeks ago and did just an "top off/fill" on my tranny.

I'll perform the transmission oil/pan/filter soon, but knowing that the collision center that had my truck for six months for "off the frame restoration" repairs, didn't have a clue how to refill my 8 speed tranny.

I should have performed at least a "fill/top off" when I got my truck back, but didn't, I waited a few months ...

Sometimes, my tranny wouldn't down shift all the way to first gear after coming to an complete stop, still in second, and would lug a little when taking off, then down shift to first and drive normal ... something was wrong.

I checked the transmission oil at the fill plug while the truck was sitting normal and the tranny temp cool, no fluid came out. So, I used my @Wild one's one gallon garden sprayer set up and put in one full quart of tranny fluid, nothing coming back out. Got a second quart of tranny fluid and started filling again, about twenty seconds later, tranny fluid came out of the fill hole.

Ok, jacked the truck up leveling the transmission on jack stands/floor jack and begin filling the tranny again with the tranny still cool, tranny fluid came out after about another twenty seconds.

Put the plug in and went through the transmission fill procedure and finally got the transmission full ... solid two quarts ...

So, no. The collision center didn't refill my tranny when the had everything torn apart and it's my fault if my tranny explodes in the near future, lol.

I talked personally to the owner of the collision center repair shop about the tedious procedure on the 8 speed transmission refill ... he had the look of an deer being spotlighted at night, no clue, whatsoever.

Fwiw, my tranny is back to normal, it was acting up from being low on transmission fluid and all is good again ... I hope.

Hopefully it's okay J,if it does go south,i think i'd be mentioning it to the body shop,as 2 quarts down is alot.

 

[JHoward]

Hopefully it's okay J,if it does go south,i think i'd be mentioning it to the body shop,as 2 quarts down is alot.

I think it's ok, Rick. The transmission is doing great, so far. It's a good thing I'm retired and not driving no where as much as to when I was working.

I was adamant on scheduled maintenance, but was sometimes lazy and procrastinating when I was still working ..., lol ... that's contradicting?

 

[JHoward]

... and by the way, doing the tranny fill isn't a thing ... getting on my old ass on the ground down under the truck was the job.

 

[Wild one]

... and by the way, doing the tranny fill isn't a thing ... getting on my old ass on the ground down under the truck was the job.

I know what you mean,i got lots of things i know i should be doing,but getting up the ambition to do them isn't near as easy as it was even 5 years ago,once a guy gets past 60 things go downhill "rapidly" I used to do alot of welding,but my eyes have went to $h!t alot in the last couple years,so running a nice bead with-out having my nose damn near on top of the weld,means my welds aren't near as pretty as they used to be

 

[JHoward]

Hopefully it's okay J,if it does go south,i think i'd be mentioning it to the body shop,as 2 quarts down is alot.

Well, I made note to two "solid" quarts, that isn't correct and I misspoke.

My apologies.

I had meant I opened two quarts, I used one and a little of the other.

Anyhow, that is still low.