Changed the engine oil today, and this time decided to go ahead and change the tranny oil and tranny pan gasket. About a year ago I'd bought a package from Pep Boys that had the tranny pan gasket and also tranny a strainer, because the last time I went to the dealership they said I needed a new tranny pan gasket.
Draining the tranny oil, no big deal, just had to use a plumber's wrench to assist in rotating the 10mm Allen wrench. It was on tight.
Removed the tranny pan, and boy did I make a mess on my driveway, even with the papers there, I hadn't realized there would be that much oil - it didn't all neatly drain into my oil collection pan.
Sprayed carburetor cleaner on the inside of the tranny pan to clean it, and used a baby-wipe to clean the magnets. Then used some Dexron-III (from Wal-Mart, yay!) to rinse the inside of the tranny pan again.
Removed the old gasket. My Haynes manual said to "carefully" remove it, wasn't sure what that meant, since I'd also read warnings that even a stray bit of cloth lint could ruin a transmission. Settled for using a flathead screwdriver to remove/scrape away old gasket, re-spraying with more carburetor cleaner, and more Dexron-III for final rinse. Also picked up with my fingers any stray tiny bits of cloth lint.
Also removed the tranny strainer and put in the Pep Boys strainer. Probably wasn't the best idea, since the Pep Boys strainer said "Made in Vietnam", but hey, the old one was 10 years old, plus it was pretty easy to remove. Kept the old one in a plastic bag, just in case I need it later.
And now for the major "Oh F$@&" moment. My new tranny gasket was a bit warped, the result of being stuffed into a box from Pep Boys. Trying to put the gasket on, and then put it and the tranny pan back onto the car, was a nightmare. The screws holding the gasket in position kept falling out. Move one screw, another would fall out. Major panic set in. How am I going to get the tranny pan back on, with the gasket correctly in place? Thought, maybe some grease would hold it in place. No luck - no grease.
Thought, "what would MacGyver do?" (my childhood hero.) Then I had an idea. I had a box of 4" nails, some duct tape, and scissors. I cut about 4-5 inches of duct tape, cut it with the scissors to reduce the width by half, and wrapped the sharp end of each of four nails with the duct tape. Used the four newly-fattened nails to hold the gasket in place at strategic screw hole locations, then put the pan back onto the transmission. It worked. Whew!
The only other major source of excitement was trying to get 2 qts of Wal-Mart Dexron-III into the fill hole. I found it helps *a lot* to first pour the Dexron from the gallon jug into a pint-sized water bottle. (First, to make sure the bottle was clean, I poured some Dexron-III into the water bottle, shook, and discarded this rinse into my oil waste container.)
Apart from that, it was just a matter of trial-and-error in measuring the oil: whoops, too much, drained some out. Whoops, drained too much out, add some more. More. More. More. Got it. Drove around a bit, car feels a bit smoother.
Anyway. That's my tranny oil/gasket change adventure, maybe the stuff I learned can help somebody else out.