I took $50 , went to the dealer and bought 2.5 gallons of HyTran to replace the oil in the shuttle. Next printed the service manual instructions that say “Turn the engine manually until the plug on the tc can be seen thru the hole in the flywheel housing. Remove the drain plug from the tc and drain...” I did all that, but used a remote starter button to crank the engine a bit at a time but I couldn’t see any drain plug on the tc. How big or small is this plug? Do all the 580se’s have a tc drain? Any suggestions how else to flush out the old tc oil if there isn’t a drain plug? If it’s a small plug, it’s possible that I missed it , using the starter to bump the engine isn’t really slow enough to carefully see everything. If you say the Plug is there, I’ll keep looking. Thanks a lot.
The plug is 1/8" NPT with 7/16" hex head. It should be there unless the convertor was replaced with one without a drain plug. Turning engine by hand - usually means turning by hand..... Hard to do by one's self, I know. As does a magician, I set a mirror on the ground & use a good flashlight to shine up into the bellhousing while turning the engine with a cranking tool that fits into the bell housing.
If you are changing oil in the shuttle I suggest taking the pan off clean the magnet , no need for a gasket just use RTV when putting it back on. removing the cooler lines at the shuttle allows for more oil to drain out, make sure you put them back on where they came off. The drain plug in the torque converter can be a challenge to find as Alrman has stated and sometimes difficult to remove.
Don't overuse the RTV cement. It will squeeze out and pieces of the cured stuff will cause untold problems besides plugging filters and screens. I always let it cure a little before tightening down the bolts.
Everyone tends to be too generous with RTV on oil pans, engine covers etc. except us experienced mechanics. haha
...and allowing it to harden for some hours prior to final tightening is actually on the mfg instructions. Not intuitive or obvious but makes perfect sense. instructions: “Assemble parts immediately while silicone is still wet. 7. Finger tighten flange only until material begins to seep out the sides of the flange. 8. Allow to set for at least two hours and re-torque at least one quarter to one half turn. 9. For best results, allow to cure overnight.”
Found it! I broke down and ordered the special socket for manually rotating the engine. Then it was easy to find the small bolt/plug and remove it and drain the torque converter. Thanks for your help.