brian.philbin@gmail.com wrote in news:739d58c8-ca21-49ee-904e-
451687186f31@s1g2000prg.googlegroups.com:

> Hi, I was wondering if anyone knew a place online where I can find
> photos of a manual transmission fluid change. Seems like a simple
> request, but I've been unable to find it anywhere. When looking at
> the Honda Service Manual, it has an exploded Trans Housing view and an
> underside view of the trans, but there's no correlation between the
> two, as they are from completely different perspectives (the exploded
> trans view looks to be from the top down and the bolt view seems to be
> from the bottom up...). The Owner's Manual isn't much more help. All
> of these drawings are inconclusive as far as where to expect to find
> the bolts.
>
> I'm smart enough to know that the trans is on the passenger side and
> that I should be looking just behind the axle, other than that,
> though, it's anyone's guess and I really don't want to remove the
> wrong bolt.
>
> Can anyone point me toward an online view of the location of the
> filler and drain bolts?
>
> My thanks, in advance,
>
> Brian
>
> PS - If there's a simple tutorial on how to get under the car and add
> the fluid without jacking the car up, that'd be welcome, too!




You MUST raise the car. There is simply not enough room if you leave it
on the ground. Plus the car __MUST__ be level when you perform the
procedure, so simply hoisting one wheel won't do it.

Look at the flat, vertical transmission surface that points towards the
right front wheel. Towards the very bottom there is a round-headed bolt
that has a square hole in it. That's the drain bolt. Immediately above
that is a 19mm hex-headed bolt. That's the fill hole. The hole is big
enough that you can stick your fingertip in there to feel for the oil
level, exactly like on a 1908 Ford Model-T.

Use a pick of some sort to remove any and all crud from the square hole
in the round bolt. You want to make certain the 3/8" drive on your
ratchet seats snugly and does not slip! Do NOT round off that square
hole!

Auto parts places sell cheap pumps that screw into a gallon jug. They
look sort of like the pumps you find on jugs of hand soap, or the
ketchup dispensers at McDonalds. These pumps come with hoses that go
into the new oil supply and into the tranny fill bolt hole.

Be CLEAN about this, and work out of some sort of pan that will catch
your inevitable leakage. You can use the cheap pump assemblies with the
quart Honda MTF bottles, except that you need to use three hands to
comfortably control everything that needs to be controlled without
having the hose end fall out of the fill hole. I get away with two
hands, with some fiddling. Fill until it runs out of the fill hole, then
put the bolt back. It's about 2.5 quarts or so. Make certain the
spillage is from the tranny being full, and not from the hose being not
fully inserted!

They do tell you that you need a new washer each time. But my parts man
(ordinarily excellent and valuable) kept ordering me the wrong part each
and every time I asked, so I gave up and just kept re-using the original
ones. Both original washers are still on the car. Both have been removed
and replaced each and every year for seventeen years. Neither leaks.

I was gonna take pictures this year on account of several requests via
private email, but when I did the fluid change this year a storm was
brewing, so I just wanted to get it done before the skies broke (no
garage, you see). Maybe next year...

--
Tegger

The Unofficial Honda/Acura FAQ
www.tegger.com/hondafaq/