How to Fill Your Transfer Case

Video Transcript

"Today we're going to be changing the fluid in our four wheel drive transfer case. In this step I'm going to demonstrate the proper service procedure for locating your fill plug, filling your transfer case and reinstalling your fill plug. Ok once you're underneath the vehicle a, you need to locate the fill plug after you've drained the fluid from the drain plug. Now the fill plugs going to be identical to the drain plug. It's going to have the three eighths ratchet head on it and it's going to be located in a higher location than the drain plug. Where this one's located right here, right behind the counter weight and vibration dampener right next to the shift indicator. We're going to go ahead and slip that in there and begin loosening it. Alright and that is your fill plug right there, we're going to take and set this guy in the magnetic tray and begin filling our transfer case. Now what I have here are both quarts of my automatic transmission fluid and I have taken a small piece of vacuum line and left the nipple on the bottle and just cut the very top of the nipple off and stuck that vacuum line onto the nipple. What that'll do is give me a little funnel so I can take and slip this up inside and begin filling my transfer case. Now it's going to take one and a half bottles on a ninety six Ford Explorer, your vehicle may be a little different so always refer to your service manual or your owner's manual for the proper fluid capacity. Now that I've added the entire contents of one bottle to the transfer case I've switched my apparatus over to my second bottle and I'm going to begin filling it in the same procedure as the first. Alright we've added one and a half quarts of fluid to our transfer case and we have clean fluid just starting to come out. That's going to indicate the proper fill level when you can see that clean fluid right there, that's going to indicate the proper fill level. I've got my fill plug here in my hand and I'm going to go ahead and screw it in by hand as far as I can. Now these plugs have what they call pipe thread on them and the threads are really sharp. They're designed to seal, it's not necessary to put any kind of thread tape or things of that nature on it. I'm going to go ahead and torque it down and again you're tightening a steel plug into an aluminum cast aluminum housing so you're going to want to take care not to over tighten it. And there you go I'm going to remove our ratchet. That is the proper service procedure for filling your transfer case and reinstalling the fill plug."