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Looked around a bit online and didn't see much on this. Figured we could use a tutorial over here. I followed the instructions from the third post here.
Get a quart or so of ATF, a few feet of 10mm (or equivalent) clear hose, some sort of suction device, and a pair of pliers.
All I had laying around was 10mm vacuum hose, in red, so that's what I used. Would be easier with clear since then you can see a little better when the old stuff is gone and you're getting the flow of fresh fluid. Ignore that red vacuum hose going across the top of the first two photos. That's just an actual vacuum line; nothing to do with this job.
You can see the top hose of the reservoir on the left.
Take your "suction device"- bleeder kit, turkey baster, soap dispenser pump, oil pump for those bottles of gear oil etc - and remove as much of the old fluid out of the reservoir as possible. My brake bleeding kit has officially paid for itself over the last few weeks.
My old fluid was brown and smelled like charred/burned nasty stuff. Definitely the original from 98, 190,000 miles ago.
Then remove that top hose, and find a way to plug the pipe you just took the hose off. You might have a vacuum cap that will work, or something. Otherwise, use a small length of your hose over the end with a bolt or something stuck in the other end, to keep it from leaking. I used a short piece of my 10mm vacuum hose with a large bolt in the other end. Now fill the reservoir with fresh fluid.
Then find a way to attach the longer remaining length of 10mm hose to the power steering line you just pulled. My brake bleeding kit came with hose which just happened to fit the inner diameter of my vacuum and power steering hose perfectly, so I spliced it together like this
Then ran it down underneath the truck into a container.
So you've got the metal pipe coming out of the top of the reservoir plugged, and the line you pulled off that pipe is connected to the long 10mm hose, to drain the rest of the system. The reservoir was cleaned when we pumped out the fluid earlier.
If, at this point, you haven't jacked up the front of the truck, do that. In gear, parking brake on, up on jack stands. Turn the key to the ON position. Turn the wheel slowly to the left, then to the right. Old fluid will have already started draining out slowly, but when you turn the wheel it'll flow a bit faster. At this point it'll be time to add more fluid to the reservoir. If you don't have a helper, I found that after each series of 'all the way left, all the way right', it would be time for a top-off. Don't let it get low or you'll get air in the system. Keep doing this, slowly back & forth, until you see your new fluid running out of the hose.
Pull the spliced hose out of your power steering line, and quickly pull the shorter hose you attached to the reservoir to plug it, and reconnect the line. Some will spill. Let the truck down off the jacks, top off the fluid. Check to see if it needs to be topped off once more after driving it a little. Done!
All I know is what I read in the linked thread, and my experience following it. Is this a complete flush? I don't know. I'm not sure of the capacity of the system, but I only used about 3/4 of a quart of the new ATF. But I was definitely running the new, clean fluid out the drain hose, so...No matter what, most of the old burnt fluid is out, and fresh fluid is in.
And with that, I have officially changed/flushed every fluid in my truck, which feels good!
01-20-2016, 10:24 AM
