In need of serious help with 96 Rodeo

[Clark73]

I'm not much of a mechanic and you can see why after reading this. I screwed up and I need help on how to get my car moving again. Well, today I tried to change my oil on own. It sounded easy enough but I guess I was wrong. I drained all the oil out of it and replaced the filter. When I pored the new oil in I put 3 quarts in it and the dipstick said that there was way too much oil in it. It was twice as high as it should be. Maybe thats normal when your changin oil but I dont know. I kept wiping it off and reading again and it said the same thing over and over. I tried to drain some of the oil out of it but accidently droped the nut and it all came out. But even then, theres no way the whole 3 quarts came out. Only about 1 quart fell out. After all the oil was out again I checked the dipstick and it still said it was way too full. I finally said "Screw it, I'll have someone else do it." I just poored another 2 quarts in it and screwed on the lid but I forgot I never screwed the bolt back in underneath the car. I even started it up with out it. When I turned it off and realized the bolt wasnt in I looked under the car and no oil had even come out of it. I put the bolt back in and started it. At first I thought it was fine and tried to back it out of the garage but when I reached the end of the driveway I tried to put into drive it wouldnt move. I can put it into drive or reverse but they dont work. Its as if all the gears are neutral. By the way I have an automatic transmission. I know it sounds like I'm an idiot and have no business being around a car but I really need some help and any advice would be appreciated.

[amigo-2k]

Take a deep breath. Reading through your post, I think the key thing is that you put oil in when you left out the drain plug, started up and no oil came out. I'm guessing you mistakenly pulled the plug on the tranny and drained it (this is the reason for the tranny binding up.

Next steps.

We need a little help from a member here to give us an idea where the oil drain plug is and where the tranny plug is.

next once we know where that is, you can fill up the tranny.

Then drain the motor oil, and fill it back up (try not to run your truck with 2x the amount of oil in).

Once you have that done that, cross your fingers and start up and see what you got!

-Ryan

[Clark73]

Originally Posted by amigo-2k

Take a deep breath. Reading through your post, I think the key thing is that you put oil in when you left out the drain plug, started up and no oil came out. I'm guessing you mistakenly pulled the plug on the tranny and drained it (this is the reason for the tranny binding up.

Next steps.

We need a little help from a member here to give us an idea where the oil drain plug is and where the tranny plug is.

next once we know where that is, you can fill up the tranny.

Then drain the motor oil, and fill it back up (try not to run your truck with 2x the amount of oil in).

Once you have that done that, cross your fingers and start up and see what you got!

-Ryan

Whoa! Thanks man. That makes a lot of sense. I actually thought the plug was kinda close to the transmission but i couldnt find any other. I'll look again and tray to actually drain the oil this time. By the way, how do go about filling my transmission fluid back up?

[Tonupboy]

I have a 93 4WD and I could have sworn the oil drain plug is righ undernearth the engine...oil pan is small too...the transmission oild plug would be farther towards the middle, no?

[rodeo02]

Clark, Like Ryan says, it definately sounds like your drained the transmission pan by mistake (large square, flat pan). You need to move towards the front of the truck about two more feet & you well see a small black stamped steel pan, with a large hex drain bolt facing towards the driver's side. It helps if you take the skid plates off. Less messy & really easy. You'll see the oil pan better this way as well. Now the fun begins adding ATF back into your 4L30E !!! do a search for "transmission fluid", "ATF", "4L30E" or similar to get the steps for that.
G/luck
Joel