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filling and testing trans fluid levels

OutkastBoss

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Saint louis
2001 xj aw4 4.0

OK so I just converted all my trans cooler lines and fittings with -6an and jegs pushlock hose (all of them)

and added a plate style trans cooler

and also a filter that uses the wix 51515 just like my motor :)

and bm temp guage

so heres my question i am trying to fill it with the atf (didnt seem to lose much) and i am going to fill the filter before i install it ..

heres my question when ive checked level ive allways drove to heat it up shi9fted to nuetral and checked it at idle (thats what it says on dipstick)..

can it just be ran at idle in park to get it up to temp to check it . i am afraid to drive it and have a air pocket or something destroy my trans
 
ok seems like it circulates as normal in park so filling it I can do..

but heres a problem one of the fittings is leaking from a small hole w what looks like a little ball bearing in it didn't even notice them they're on each fitting but one is squirting right out of that hole ... I replaced it with a new fitting but still spraying out of that hole.. PLEASE help lol I gotta have my car
 
An air pocket should not kill your trans. You have enough fluid stored in the transmission, and TQ converter that it should be fine. I do not understand your second post. Do you have a picture or a product image so you can show the hole/ball bearing your talking about? Any reason why your using a 2nd "filter" on the transmission?

The goal for driving is that you need to get the fluid up to operating temperature as it will expand, and change you level. Reading else where on the forum the AW4 i guess you do not need to put it in idle but can leave it in park. The goal is to get it hot, I dont think you will get that while leaving the whole thing parked... you can try, but wait till the temp on the transmission with your new gauge reads over 120... I think 150-180 is normal operating temp...
 
The reason he went with a "2nd filter" is because the transmission really doesn't have a filter filter to begin with. Just a screen which doesn't do much good. Sounds like OP copied my setup.

On the fitting leaking, that ball bearing you are seeing locks the threaded collar to the fitting body. I don't think its a ball bearing, but you get the idea. The problem you are having is there is fluid leaking around the sealing seat into the fitting. Check the male side of the connection for imperfection sin the seat as wlel as the female side.
 
Thanks Magus i think you are right there is enough in it to drive it to warm up . Also like Talyn said its not really much of a filter in the aw4 and also i wanted the extra fluid volume to help cool (not shure how much diff itll make) thanks

I didnt get to take it home last night but i got it figured out now what i did wrong.

Yes Talyn i used your walkthrough and this one http://www.naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=1045807&page=3
So that i replaced the lines and fitting going all the way into the trans as well.. because of the big filter i used i had to mount it elsewhere..

SO heres what i did wrong .. (im pretty shure) because mine goes all the way to the back w the hose i didnt have a hard line to cut into for the Bm temp guage so i cut the hose and used two straight pushlock fittings to 6An because i noticed you could screw them right onto the T that came with the temp guage .. Wich i did but it isnt flared to a male end as it had one of those compression fittings in it .. So with no flare to meet up its going into the fittings and squirting out that hole in the fitting..


Now i guess ill cut a section of the old metal line get it flared to fit the 6an add it into the hose and then cut it to get the temp guage spliced in .. or i am wondering if i put that brass cruch fitting from the T in there if itll seal to the AN fitting

Thank You Guys for your help i am learning as i go !
 
Thats why i put quotes around filter, because unless you are Filtering parts of the transmission the screen in the AW4 wont do much. Just never heard of people needing to since the fill stick is way up high and the vent isabove the frame also. Never sure how the increase in back pressure will effect the trans either. I will have to look at your build when I am not at work where they block all the pictures.

I want to fix the lines I am running right now. one of my front control arms has half curshed my return line.
 
Heres a link to Talyn's walkthrough http://www.naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=1026658&highlight=trans+cooler+install

So Its not leaking anymore now that i have it hooked up correctly, i removed the trans temp sender T fitting and replaced with a flare to flare an fitting i had left over (luckily) .. ill have to have a short section of the metal flared at a shop to go in where that flare to flare went and cut in the T fitting into that for my temp guage ..
probably after payday.. ( i know it wont cost much but im broke)

but its runs nicely and my engine temp seems to have dropped a touch as a nice bonus.

TALYN,
THANK you very much for taking the time to write up a parts list take pics and write that walkthrough . if it wasnt for you i wouldve redone it stock as i didnt see any other threads like that. my buddies liked the idea so much when they saw me working on it that ill be doing both of their xj's as well. (allways good to help a friend ill need their help later im shure)

Magus,
Let me know what you find about the backpressure this causes , i seem to recall someone asking that question in one of the threads i found about adding a filter to the trans . and the general response was that it wouldnt cause an issue .. but id be interested to see if you find some more info on that
 
So Its not leaking anymore now that i have it hooked up correctly, i removed the trans temp sender T fitting and replaced with a flare to flare an fitting i had left over (luckily) .. ill have to have a short section of the metal flared at a shop to go in where that flare to flare went and cut in the T fitting into that for my temp guage ..
Have any pics of what you are trying to do? The T is probably NPT thread, which has the thread doing the job of sealing. You could use and adapter to put AN to NPT. Also, if you are using a single wire sensor the threads will be the ground path. Going in to hose and/or pipe of this setup you need to either ground the T or use a 2 wire sensor. Event he factory pipe isn't grounded good enough to just use a single wire sensor w/o some form of ground.

Just never heard of people needing to since the fill stick is way up high and the vent isabove the frame also.
Besides external dirt entering (which it shouldn't) the transmission also makes it own dirt when used. Not as much as an engine from the combustion process. Some modern auto transmissions have two filters as well. One in the pan and a spin on type some place.
You Never sure how the increase in back pressure will effect the trans either.
It won't effect the transmission's operation and back pressure increase is minimal, unless you let the filter get terrible dirty, which I would find hard to see happen unless there is a problem with the transmission to produce so much dirty. I had a pressure gauge before my filter and it didn't get very high, but I can't remember how high it got now.
 
I'll post up a pic when I get back to my house (cell phone rt now)
but where I'm tapping the sensor in the hose on either side is the 6an female end.

It'd be cool if I could find an an male to npt female that would screw right in..

also the bm sensor is one wire so I'll need to ground it . good call!
How would you recommend attaching the ground to the T ??

The initial ideas I had are strip wire and make a loop around an indented groove already on there and twist tight (seems iffy) .. Or possibly try to get some of the wire into the threads maybe..
 
Heres a pic of the temp sensor in the T fitting it came with from B&M..
CIMG0001.jpg
 
Sorry didnt realise it was such a big pic . tried to use edit post to resize and couldnt..

anyway as you see they give you a compression fitting to use to tap directly onto the cut hard line ( wich i no longer have)

The ends of the "T" are 3/8 Compression fitting.

I had it screwed in the hose to the -6an female hose ends. it screwed right in but will not seal as the "T" is not a flange type seal its thread seal therefore not compatible..

Apparently 3/8 compression isnt Npt thread as it seems because i found an adapter being sold to go from compression size thread to NPT

I also Found An to Npt adapters

So i think this
Aeroquip AN Male to NPT Female Adapter Fitting wil screw into the hose :
http://www.jegs.com/p/Aeroquip/Aeroquip-AN-Male-to-NPT-Female-Adapter-Fitting/751549/10002/-1


And this will screw onto the "T" 3/8 compression fitting:
http://www.amazon.com/Parker-FBZ-B-Compression-Fitting-Adapter/dp/B004M18TQ0

And those will screw directly together..


I think i like that better than using that short peice of tubing and using the compression fitting on the cut line (seems weaker that way)..

it would be even better if i could find an adapter from 3/8 compression to -6AN .
I saw a post on a performance forum where aguy said he used these from swedge but couldnt find on their site or anyone making a fitting like that
 
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i thought i had seen -6 T's with a 1/4npt on the branch side, but all i can find is 1/8npt, what size is your sender unit threads?


got any speed shops in the area? im lucky to live right near EARLS #1/anplumbing.com , the guy who runs it can plumb anything with style.
 
Good idea XCM !
according to what i found the threads are 1/8-27npt (EDIT: im an idiot thats the thread on the wire size i think)

i looked up the part# for b&M replacement sender for model 80212 the sender itself is b&M 80214 and i found a site that lists the specs

http://www.performanceonline.com.au...smission-temperature-gauge-sending-units.html

Yea if i was local to Earl's i would've probably gotten all my fittings there,
and came back to ask about getting this sensor in right!

Was going to google and call around the local hot rod shops today , but my dang cellphone is broken im down to text only untill my new phone gets shipped to the dang sprint store!
 
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hrmm, that may be the so called 'long style sender'... you may need one of these.... i cant find it on summit, to link directly to it, but http://www.anplumbing.com/Adapters/Special+Tees-27.html scroll down to pn# 9804061 or X782106 neither is EXACTLY what i would want... but i think both can be made to do the job... i'd go with the bulkhead fitting personally, if you have somewhere to mount it.

worst part about this, is it adds 1 tee fitting, and 2 extra hose ends to the final cost... wish they'd make something that went inline somehow... maybe im just thinking out loud. thankfully my b&m super cooler came with a built in temp sensor.
 
My gauge is an Autometer, and I don't know if the resistances of the senders are different between the B&M and Autometer, but Autometer sells a "short" sending unit. I believe the same senders are used for all of their fluid temp gauges, but it's been awhile since I ran down all the part numbers. That's one option if depth is an issue.

Also, there's a plug on the side of the trans (at least on some; I've also read it isn't on late model AW4s), that apparently is used in Toy applications for a temp switch. If you have it, you could conceivably get an M14(orwhatever size fitting that is) to 1/8NPT adapter and stick the sender in the trans itself, letting you use fewer, simpler -AN parts.

I think there's enough info between these two threads to make it work pretty easily. Hope it helps regardless. I gave up on fancy and just made mine work, but when the stock lines fail completely, I'll be putting the sensor in the trans, and running -AN fittings/hose kind of like Grimm's setup, just so I won't have to screw with it ever again.

http://www.naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=1045807

http://www.naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=1047905&page=3
 
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OK so i went to the hardware store and threaded the temp sensor onto fittings and it is 1/8 npt male from the sensor and 1/4npt female from the spacer thingie it screws into that b&m supplied with the T fitting..

It is kind of a long sensor but with the spacer thing it doesnt stick too far into the fitting after the spacer..


..
CIMG0003.jpg
 
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So maybe im doing it wrong but im trying to resize these pictures , but guess i dont know how ..

anyway with the spacer the sensor only sticks into the next fitting about as far as the threads
and all the npt fittings at the store had room inside them for the sensor to go inside them . so hopefully itll go insidethe npt side of the an to npt adapter as well..

I did check to see if it could fit inside the '6an and it does not. but it should not have to. ...

ok heres the new fittings im gonna use

im going to use the Temp sensor and spacer so ill have 1/4 npt female

Then a 1/4 NPT Male to -6An Female Adapter:
http://www.jegs.com/i/JEGS-Performance-Products/555/100332/10002/-1?parentProductId=1284108

An then Just Use A Standard -6An "T" fitting..

out of all the options so far this seems to be the best as its good solid connections and no compression fittings wich i think is better
 
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This is the adapter I used: http://www.summitracing.com/parts/AER-FBM2884/

And a reducer bushing for the sender unit to go from 1/8" NPT on the sender to 1/4" NPT. My sensor looks about as long as that one too.

If you have that extra port in front of the forward most cooler line that maybe a better option. My 2000 didn't. But you will need an adapter for that, which i can't remember the part number for.
 
This is the adapter I used: http://www.summitracing.com/parts/AER-FBM2884/

And a reducer bushing for the sender unit to go from 1/8" NPT on the sender to 1/4" NPT. My sensor looks about as long as that one too.

If you have that extra port in front of the forward most cooler line that maybe a better option. My 2000 didn't. But you will need an adapter for that, which i can't remember the part number for.


I am going to look for that extra port but if not i think the fitting you used is the best way to go Thanks for posting that up .

And for future reference for others searching the part number for the reducer im using is :
Aeroquip FBM2136 - Aeroquip Reducers
And summit has them as well of course!
 
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