Mr_aerostar

I have a 97 Ford Escort Wagon that was in need of a transmission fluid change so I thought I might as well change the filter while I'm at it. In my Ford workshop manual it looked like a straight forward job, but so far it has been anything but that. The fasteners were pretty corroded so it took awhile to get all those out and now I have pulled the pan away from the housing and let the fluid drain out , but I can't get the pan to slide past the support beam. It looks like its about to slide away and then one of the corners gets wedged in between the support beam and the filter inside the housing. In the ford manual it mentions nothing about this. Anyone else have this problem?

Thanks

Bert

Maybe the motor mounts are worn down. Try lifting the engine with a jack a little and see if that helps.

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Bert

Mr_aerostar

I tried doing that with a floor jack and a piece of wood right in between where the engine and tranny bolt up and the whole front end just goes up with it. No space is created. I was thinking of maybe unbolting the front tranny mount which is fastened to the support beam in question and maybe create some space.

Bert

That's probably your best option. The pan should come right off without that so I don't know what could be up.

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Bert

Mr_aerostar

Hey guys,

Thanks for all the good tips. The motor mounts in fact have sagged over the years, and I did the jack and wood method between the tranny and was able to get the clearance I needed to remove and re- install the new pan and gasket. Only thing now is after changing fluid the tranny isn't going into 3rd gear and slips sometimes. Don't know what that is about... I checked the levels and it was down a bit, but I added the right amount and its not shifting that well. Hopefully it will go away after driving it around a bit. I don't know if because the previous owner drove it so long with bad fluid that the new ATF has "Shocked" that transmission

Bert

Is there any way to have it scanned for codes? Advanced auto parts and Autozone will for free here but I don't know in Canada,

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Bert

Mr_aerostar

Wouldn't a check light come on if the computer was shooting out error codes?

Bert

Not neccessarily. There's often a code without a light.

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Bert