All4 manual trans oil change alternative fill, and shift linkage lube
 

Hello

With an all4 I found the gear oil fill plug to be in a inconvenient place to reach with tools due to the transfer case in the way. I put it off for another time during another repair that gives me better access.
At 64k miles my gearshifter started to feel a bit stiff from side-to-side. I used this shift linkage lube as an opportunity for an alternative fill (and in my case drain too) location.
Maybe this will be helpful to someone.

PSA: Always loosen a fill plug before a drain plug.

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.nor...bc765438a0.jpg
This is the gearshift selector. Its on top of the transmission. This shaft is the side-side motion of the shifter. I put white lithium grease here, the ball sockets for cables and top of part in pic with the clip. Inside the car i pulled up the shift boot and greased the ball socket. I don't think that was necessary.


https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.nor...69b9c33406.jpg
This is the top of trans where the selector came from. 4x T30 bolts. You will need a long reach T30 socket for one of them. The tube is sucking out the gear oil.
With the hole so large you can really move the tube around down there to collect the oil in different places.

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.nor...3851defcca.jpg
I am using a typical oil sucker available pretty much anywhere these days. Note that I'm also using the drain plug below. I'm kinda OCD about getting as much old fluid out as possible.

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.nor...ad6c737f2c.jpg
So obviously you don't need these fancy jackstands to tilt the car. Like I said I'm OCD about this stuff. I tilt the car front/back to get as much old gear oil out as I can. Again I'm both sucking out from top as well as draining from the bottom.

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.nor...625cc31add.jpg
Tilted other way. Grey drip pan for coolant hose disconnect to access the shift selector. Black pan gear oil.

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.nor...5c34757737.jpg
So after all that car tilting and sucking, this is what I could manage to get out. Pretty good I think as the car (I believe) takes 2 liters.

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.nor...dfbb771b46.jpg
2 quarts is just about right. I used Royal Purple Synchromax

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Hope this is a bit helpful without pictures of below (just a drainplug) or step-by-step access to the shift selector.