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This may be a dumb question but I'd rather look dumb for a second than be pi**ed for an hour.

Anyways, when replacing the axles, do you have to drain the gear oil from the tranny? I know ATX fluid spills out when you remove them but I'm not familiar with the MTX.

I can easily drain it out from the bottom plug if that's the case but if don't have to, I would rather not. I just don't want to waste fresh gear oil (full synthetic=$$$$).

Thanks in advance

You do have to drain it unfortunately. but if you're careful and its in good condition you can reuse it.

Thanks. It's brand new oil that has only been ran at idle. I hope I can re-use it. I'll drain it, then run it through a filtered funnel. Should be fine though.

shouldn't be a problem at all.

I have a designated drain pan just for that purpose

But if you aren't removing the intermediate shaft, you can get away with not draining it. jack up just the drivers side when you do that side and nothing will spill because of the angle

JWMX3 wrote:I have a designated drain pan just for that purpose

But if you aren't removing the intermediate shaft, you can get away with not draining it. jack up just the drivers side when you do that side and nothing will spill because of the angle

Exactly, you DO NOT have to drain it. Just when doing one side jack it up and it will stay inside the differential. You might lose a few ounces when you take it off but you won't loose much as long as it's at an angle.

That's good info to know for the future. The whole car is on jacks at the moment and has been for almost a year now. There's a lot of work I've been doing and it's much easier to work on the exhaust that way too.

Thanks for all the info and I did buy a specific pan just for this job and nothing else.