Don,

You can drain a lot of the fluid out of the auto tranny by 
disconnecting the dipstick/fill tube from the pan.  Once that has 
trickled down drop the pan and you will get more -- it is a bit less 
messy to drain through the tube first.

I haven't drained the final drive yet (it is on my to do pretty soon 
list) but the first thing you want to do is locate and remove the fill 
plug which is a 17mm allen plug on the left side of the drive.  If you 
can't this out DO NOT drop the final drive pan because you can't re 
fill it.

Chuck
'85 Wolfsburg Westy - 'Roland the Road Buffalo'

> Date:��� Mon, 14 Feb 2005 14:54:55 -0500
> From:��� Don in North Carolina <Don_Dixon@BELLSOUTH.NET>
> Subject: Automatic trans and diff draining
>
> I want to drain (and refill with synthetic oil) both the automatic
> transmission and the final drive (differential) on my 1988 Vanagon.� 
> As the
> Bentley manual is spectacularly unhelpful on this, I have some 
> questions.
>
> For the automatic transmission, I have tried draining it using the 
> dipstick
> tube (with a plastic tube down into it and a hand pump) to siphon the 
> oil
> out, with very limited results (maybe 1/2 cup - it's a cheap pump).� 
> As I
> plan on replacing the pan gasket and filter (screen) in the 
> transmission,
> can I just crack open the pan (carefully) to drain the transmission?� 
> I have
> a very large (5 gallon) oil drain container to drain into, probably 
> 3'x2',
> and lots of shop towels...
>
> As for the final drive, Bentley shows a bottom pan with no drain plug 
> and
> shows no fill plug either.� Where are these located, so that I can 
> find them
> when I crawl under there?� Is it best to remove the pan on this to 
> inspect
> it as well?
>
> Don in Reidsville, NC
> 1987 Vanagon GL Syncro (Suzie) - For Sale!
> 1988 Vanagon GL (Sylvia)
> Why do they call it a fixed income, when mine is always broke?
>
>