RE: Drive shaft woes II

["Stegmann, Steve" <Steve.Stegmann@domain.elided>]

All's well that ends. I always say.  What  a night.

Mark (my son) and I decided to change the oil in the transmission and the
t'case.  We had the drive shafts out, crossmember out.  Seemed like a good
idea.

OK so I get my oil drain pan.  The 15 qt one with the whole top that is a
funnel.  I carefully take the plug out of the bottom of the funnel BTDT,
open the air vent BTDT.  Then I make sure the drain plug is loose, and
remove the fill plug.  Then I hold the pan up near the transmission so it
won't splash after falling two feet, and take out the drain plug with my
fingers.

Well.. the 80 wt or whatever was in there ain't going through the funnel.
It's just backing up.  I tipped the pan just a bit by accident and that's
when I noticed the tidal wave of black goo coming at me over the top of the
pan.  YEEE!  HAAA!  Get some paper towels Mark.  They're behind you Dad says
Mark.  We both scream for a while and I stick my fingers (big hole) in the
drain hole, some of it finally goes through the funnel and the rest is on
the ground, me Mark, the concrete floor.  

I didn't know this thing holds four 4 quarts of oil.  And it drains in about
2 seconds.  I'm going to sleeve down the drain hole for next time.

So the next 15 min is spent cleaning up the mess.  If I were the trash man
this morning, I'd be carefull to stay upwind of the trash can.

Then Mark says to use the other oil pan, you know looks like a wash pan.  So
the last cup came out with no problems.

Some days are just like that...

Finally got the shafts back in,  cross member back in, new transmission
mount, etc.  Seems to work fine.  Anyway nothing fell off on the way to work
this morning.

Steve