Well, I managed a couple of hours in the garage tonight, and sorted the gearbox oil.
So...........
If you recall, I discovered that despite my four Dealer Service stamps, the gearbox level plug was inaccessible due to the heat insulation having not been cut around the access hole. Furthermore, once relieved with my Stanley knife, looked like this.
If you have a traditional Mog, lift the leather centre console cover drivers side/offside/right hand side(lift the dots), take the grommet out and check that your level plug is accessible. The oil level check is a service item.
ANYWAY.......
A few minutes with the Dremel and cutting disc made it look like this..............Now yer talking......
Both the level plug and drain plug are 17mm. Although the gearbox is 'filled for life' I decided at the weekend to drop the oil & refill. Esso ATF LT 71141 is a bit elusive, but hey, what's the internet for?
Note that both plugs were very tight. Once removed the oil looked like this. In truth, it was not as black as this appears, rather a dark honey colour. The container is a 2 litre ice cream container, and you can see that only about 1.4 litres came out. Happily only about 1.4 litres went back in to take it to level, which means that about half a litre stays in the gearbox. I had to fabricate a length of plastic tube to fit a funnel, and it's fiddly in the footwell.
So after all this, I'm left with an oddly shaped hole and no suitable grommet. But help is at hand in my offcuts box........
First - I cut a plug from reflective heat resistant material and placed it loose in the hole.
Next I made up an alloy plate, and covered the 'inside' with double sided tape. I positioned the plate over the top, and the tape picked up the heat resistant plug. I finished it off on the inside with silver tape. I used a pin chuck to drill the holes (a manual drill which is more accurate than an electric drill - it doesn't dance across the alloy), and found two nice flat philips self tappers in the self tapper tub.......
So when fitted,looks like this.
While the carpets were out, I've treated the floor boards to some Colron Danish Oil, which is a waterproofing oil and arguably better than varnish. Over winter I'll get the seats out and do the floor beneath. I'll attend to the toolbox cover wood when I do the axle oil over the weekend. The shiny finish in the next photo looks a bit better than it looks in reality..............
Maybe it's time to reveal the real me, together with old T shirt, sweatshirt, old cords, and cracked mug. (Only cracked mugs are allowed in the garage).........
