Having to do another one of these valve-bodies, this specific one is from a Mazda BT-50 pickup. However this is actually a Ford product. The pickup itself we can also argue about, I do believe that it's a Ford built into the exterior of a Mazda. Even the parts under the hood are labeled with Ford stickers and badges.
Why? Well have you ever heard of FoMoCo? Probably not it's not really a thing anymore. Well it is, but this isn't partnered with Mazda anymore. At-least I'm 95% sure about this.
FoMoCo is short for Ford Motor Company, and back in the day. The good old olden days Ford and Mazda sort of worked together building motors and all that fancy's. This in itself is kind of weird because there was and always has been a separation between American and Japanese.
Although I am a huge fan of the Japanese Domestic Market (JDM) side of the industry but more than often I work on German and American vehicles it's not that I don't work on these Aisin vehicles, they do break as well just not as often and when they break it's a little bit more expensive to fix them. So you could say there is a balance between them.
Oh don't confuse Aisin with Asian. Aisin is just a Japanese corporation and doesn't refer to the Asian's in any way.
Okay well there's a little bit of useless information for everyone.😅😃
What I will be doing today is removing a Valve-body on one of these so called MazdaFord pickups.
Do I like doings these? Nope, Not at all.
Do I have to do them? Yes, Yes I have to.
Don't get me wrong I do fancy the technologies behind it as well as the designs. And not to mention that it's fairly easy work for something that's so intriguingly complicated.
What I don't like is the fact that they built this "Fascinating technology" into a pickup truck.
And where I'm from a pickup truck does not drive on tar roads at all. They are completely meant for the off-road and country side. We all know what happens with dirt roads once they get wet!
Along with that is the fact of the oil, I know I am a technician and all that and oil is my game. But this, dear lord this can be excruciating at times. Especially if you have to remove these more than once in order to pin point the problem.
"However enough of my ranting slantings."
"Let's get into it."
Naturally disconnecting the batteries is always a must when working with parts that generally have a direct line of electricity connected to them. Seeing that we will remove the Valve-body. and it's controlled by electricity removing the negative pole from the battery is highly recommended.
It's unlikely that something will short out, but it's not impossible. Rather safe than sorry.
The links of the gearbox I generally unbolt, I don't remove the whole link. I only loosen the two bolts that holds it in place, the reason for this is because the bracket sort of tapers in under the oil sump pan of the gearbox.
This will get in the way of a bolt or three that is located next to the bracket, and once ready to remove the pan you will have to bend it in weird ways to remove it. It's possible to do this, but I like a hassle and struggle free job.
Sorry for that one blur photo
For those who have worked on these before, either removal of the gearbox or valve-body or general maintenance to the vehicle should know that these gearboxes don't have a drain plug.
What do we do now?
Easy and simple
Seeing that my co-worker and his dad are heavy into speedboats and all those nice watery adventure toys, well they have a lot of these (What would you call it?) Manual fuel pumps perhaps? I really ain't sure what it's called.
I just know they work and I push it in where we fill it up with oil and bam! A few hand pumps later and the gearbox has no more oil in, wellll it always has a little bit of oil left.
This is where I always try and play my cards safe, or where I start paying attention to what I do.
This is a turn in plug, they are easy to understand. However not always as easy to work with, this specific one is in a cramped up space and generally people tend to break that little ear off.
"Don't be that guy today" I kept telling myself.
If it breaks off, and it does because of all the sand causing strain it's usually a mission to get it off! A lot of patient and endurance later and perhaps, just perhaps you'll get it off.
The oil sump pan removal can be real tedious work, it's held in place twenty one (8MM) hexagon bolts. Which are obviously longer than they need to be, so you have some tedious turning work to do as well.
Before I completely remove the sump pan I do a few things, mainly get the biggest stainless steel pan in the workshop (any big pan or bucket would do) I then place it underneath the oil sump pan.
This is to catch oil that would be leaking out slowly through the veins inside the gearbox while you remove the valve-body.
Once you split the oil sump pan you can clearly see that it has some more oil leaking out. This is oil that was unable to be picked up by the draining tool we have. However this is not a problem, I just left it to leak into the pan below. I tend to leave a bolt in on one side and leave it hanging for a minute or two.
When I removed the oil sump pan I tend to push my hand in slowly on the side and hold up the oil filter within the gearbox.
Why?
The oil sump pan is somewhat of a support for the filter, it keeps it mounted into place. Because it has a lot of oil contained inside it, it's a bit too heavy for its own weight and tends to fall out/off.
The falling is not really the problem. See the thing is once you remove the oil sump pan it drops a second or so after this, then you're left with a splash of oil in the face. The filter drops straight down into the oil left within the sump pan and naturally it splashes everywhere!
A few things that needs to be done to remove the valve-body. Well actually two things which relates to one and then you just need to loosen and remove the correct bolts holding it into place!
Starting off with this white lever/clip, pull it down gently. These things might break easily because of the warming up and cooling down effect that wore off on the plastics!
Lets jump back to that electrical plug socket. Yes we already removed the harness going into it that powers the computer on the valve-body. Now after releasing the white lever/clip in the photo above you will need to pull this socket out.
I like to use standard pliers, grab it gently and pull.
Don't pinch down too hard, the chance of messing up the threads for the actual wire harness is a real big possibility. Also the sand will make it stick more!
A lot of people ask me.
"But how exactly do you know which bolts to losen?"
Well the answer is simple and is in fact right in front of me. It has 11 bolts that you need to take out before this will come falling out. I marked them with those ugly orange dots, see? Now you can't miss them at all!
Okay but you still didn't get your answer? (Refer to the next image after the image below)
There are two bolts visible in this photo. Notice there is a difference between the actual heads of the bolts?
I want to remove the one on the right. It uses a T-30 torque drive bit, the one on the left uses a T-27 torque drive bit. So messing this up really just isn't possible!
Be sure to keep your hands underneath the valve-body ready to catch it because once enough bolts are removed it will actually start dropping and once the last bolt is out it will definitely come falling out. So while I remove bolts I want to keep it supported.
After the valve-body is removed you'll notice that the oil is still leaking slowly, this will happen for quite sometime to come.
Either leave the draining pan below it so that you don't waste oil everywhere.
Or
Re-install the oil sump pan back into place if you need to be able to move the vehicle.
I will be stripping and cleaning one of these valve-body's within the next week or two. Stay tuned it might be an interesting thing to see!
To everyone who made it this far into my post Thank you for the read and the support.
If you found this entertaining or educational please consider a re-blog and up-vote.
Most of all please leave a input in the comments below, whether is good or bad critic I would like to know, whether its your opinion or your way of doing things in a different manner I would like.
Connecting the people of #HIVE across South Africa. #hive
