6L80 fluid change

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This weekend my cousin and I will be doing a bunch of things to his '11 Chevy 1500 5.3, it has around 250k and needs ball joints, motor mounts and a bunch of other things. He wants to change the transmission fluid and filter, I figured the best way would be to measure exactly how much we drain out and put that amount back in. My only concern is removing the old seal and installing the new one that the filter goes into. do they make a special seal puller to remove/install it? I dont want to damage the bore it sits in.
 
Use a large flat screwdriver to bend in the lip of the filter seal, Once you have it well away from the bore.
Using the same large flat head, At about a 20 degree angle.....Use a hammer to drive the pried away lip part of the seal Upward. The seal will flip sideways & can now be removed with a 90° Awl.

Use a appropriate sized socket to drive the new seal in.
 
Originally Posted by clinebarger
Use a large flat screwdriver to bend in the lip of the filter seal, Once you have it well away from the bore. Using the same large flat head, At about a 20 degree angle.....Use a hammer to drive the pried away lip part of the seal Upward. The seal will flip sideways & can now be removed with a 90° Awl. Use a appropriate sized socket to drive the new seal in.


Good heavens... ?!?

You have to do that to change the trans filter?
 
Originally Posted by Linctex
Originally Posted by clinebarger
Use a large flat screwdriver to bend in the lip of the filter seal, Once you have it well away from the bore. Using the same large flat head, At about a 20 degree angle.....Use a hammer to drive the pried away lip part of the seal Upward. The seal will flip sideways & can now be removed with a 90° Awl. Use a appropriate sized socket to drive the new seal in.


Good heavens... ?!?

You have to do that to change the trans filter?


Depends how good the seal still is? If you install the filter & just the weight makes it hang at an angle....The seal needs changed.
Unlike the previous 4L60E/4L80E......The 6L80E/6L90E seal is not near as robust.
 
Filter seals seem to have gotten more pathetic. When I did my 68RFE I was a little disturbed by how stiff and unlike and actual seal a brand new Mopar seal was. Plenty of stories of these filters "dropping" during operation too. Lot of people like to make a tab to hold the filter in place.
 
When you change your fluid i would recommend a Trans Adapt Reset in the TCM module. We installed a rebuilt 6L90 in my buddies 12 2500 6.0 with a new converter and it shifted really funky until we reset the TCM shift adapts.
 
The filter seal is the least of your worries. The exhaust Y-pipe goes right underneath the transmission pan, and you need to unbolt the Y-pipe from the exhaust manifolds to get the pipe to droop down far enough to remove the pan. I hope you have an oxy-acetylene torch handy to heat up those rusty exhaust studs. Even then, there's no guarantee the studs won't break, or that the threads won't get boogered up when you remove the nuts. I dropped the pan and changed the filter on my wife's Escalade a few months ago. What was supposed to be an easy 2 hour job turned into a 3 day long debacle. The wife was not pleased. Good luck.

But to answer your question, a pilot bearing puller is a handy tool to pull the filter seal out. You don't need to use a slide hammer with it; it'll probably come out if you yank on it by hand.
 
Just do a fluid exchange with the trans. Pump out with the cooler output line and then replace fluid as required until fresh fluid pumps out. Dropping the pan may prove more than its worth. I have done a couple transmissions and the filter seals have been fine. If you do drop the pan and change the filter, insert the new filter and see how it fits. If it is a nice right fit and clicks into place, you are probably fine. Plus you will see driveability issues right away if it is not seated or leaking.

I read lots of filter dropping issues prior to servicing my 545RFE and 4L60E. But when I got my hands in there I found that the filter fits tight into the seal but you have to push it in even further, until you feel it give and hear a clunk as it bottoms out. Its easy to tell visually as the filter will be sitting parallel with the trans.
 
Originally Posted by Diesel12
When you change your fluid i would recommend a Trans Adapt Reset in the TCM module. We installed a rebuilt 6L90 in my buddies 12 2500 6.0 with a new converter and it shifted really funky until we reset the TCM shift adapts.


Not needed for Fluid/Filter service.
 
Originally Posted by dave1251
I would just change the fluid rather than worry about the rock catcher.


GM/Hydramatic has used SPX "MicroFelt" filter media for many years now & can load-up after a couple hundred thousand miles.
 
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