To drain the torque converter the drain plug must be in the down position. To get the drain plug in the down position the conventional way is to turn the crank shaft while the wheels are off the ground.

Can you jog the engin to get the torque converter plug to the down position. Has anyone tried??? this method??? The reason I want to avoid the convention way is that I don't have a method to lift all 4 wheels on my ml.

thanks

blau

__________________
Silver Honda Accord, 2006
Silver G500, 2003
Silver SLK-320, 2002
Black ML-320, 2000
Bule Porsche 993 Targa , 1997
Silver Merkur XR4Ti, 1987

Of course you can. The problem is lucking out and getting it at the right rotational position.

Steve

I have never tried it this way, so try it at your own risk, but it should work if you are strong enough. Leave all 4 wheels on the ground, but just put the truck in neutral, and use the conventional method (MAKE SURE YOUR CHOCK THE WHEELS). Even if you do it the conventional way, you need to put it in neutral, as if it is up in the air in park, the trans is still locked. I guess you could put it up in the air and leave it in drive, but then you are turning the whole driveline with the wrench, not just the front half of the trans. The only benefit to having it up in the air is that if you have it up on a lift, you can turn the crank with a large wrench from below, rather than reaching down from above. Even with the truck in "N" you are still turning the torque converter, just not the driven gears in the gearbox.

You are misinformed. You can turn the engine with all four wheels down, just put the parking brake on and shift the trans out of park. The torque converter is driven by the engine and will slip very easily when turning the crank with a wrench (or a pry bar on the toothed starter ring)

Depending on the compression stroke, you may find that you can never hit the starter and get the drain plug to stop at the bottom. Or it may stop on the bottom the very first try.

jim in Phoenix

Folks, you're making this way too hard. With the engine off in a vehicle with an automatic transmission you can turn the engine in any gear you'd like to. Any gear. Even Park. On a 2wd, 4wd, or Awd vehicle.

When the engine is not running, the trans pump is not pumping, making it just about impossible for any clutches to apply. Essentially, everything is neutral. Even if you had somehow managed to keep a gear applied, through some really odd aftermarket set-up (like a trans-brake), you would still be able to turn the converter, as the whole idea of a torque converter is to allow enough slip that the engine can happily churn away with a gear selected... you know, like when you stop at a stop sign.

Now as for using the vehicle's starter motor to do this, it's not too much of a problem either, as it will only engage in either neutral or park, and either of those will work just fine.

Perhaps the better question is "Does my torque converter even have a drain plug?" or "Why am I messing with my transmission to begin with?". I'd probably start with those and make sure I had them well answered before going any further.

MV

I have 99 ML-430. I tried draining my torque converter last summer but found it with NO drain plug at all. I thought I was seeing things so I rotated the converter several times around and there was really NO drain plug that I could find - just a spot weld to shut the drain plug. I wind up changing just the fluid on the trainy but not on the converter. Is this normal?

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Josemin


88 MB 300E
88 MB 560SEL
99 MB ML 430

Hello,

Can anyone else confirm this for other ML (other years and model)?

thanks

__________________
Silver Honda Accord, 2006
Silver G500, 2003
Silver SLK-320, 2002
Black ML-320, 2000
Bule Porsche 993 Targa , 1997
Silver Merkur XR4Ti, 1987

I have a 1999 ML430 and CAN confirm it DOES have a drain plug for the torque converter.

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Jim

All 99 MLs with a 722.6 auto trans have drain plugs in the torque convertor assuming that no one has replaced that convertor with something different.