It was quite the adventure, but made much easier with the help found here. Everything went pretty smooth up to the point where I was putting the tranny pan back on and was about 9 bolts into it when I looked on the ground next to me and noticed this little black rubber ring. DOH! I guess it had fallen off and I didn't even notice when I was placing the filter back on.

Anyway, the only other thing that didn't go so well was one of the corner screws wouldn't go back in on the front side of the pan....perhaps stripped but not sure. I didn't notice any leaking after driving for a bit, but is this something that I should be immediately concerned with?

I took pics because I know how everyone likes to see these dirty things get clean...check out those magnets!! I couldn't even see them, they were just big black lumps.

 

You are not the only one who forgot about the ring, I had to take it off the pan after I also forgot to put it on.

Good to see no chunks or anything...so you look A-OK

 

Nice job, you are good to go for 60K. Did you ever take a picture of the filter

 

no I didn't take any pics of the filter. By then I was so filthy I didn't even want to touch the camera. I also opted to just clean the metal one in there since it looked pretty good instead of putting in the new paper one

 

I saved my metal tranny filter and will put it back when 60K is due. But I will supplement with a Magnefine paper filter to retain non-ferrous particles, which are too fine to be trapped by metal screen filter and won't be retained by those magnets.
See the picture I posted here https://www.clublexus.com/forums/sho...=220061&page=3

 

If the bolt (specially the corner one) is not starting to thread, most probably it is an alignment issue. You should try by loosening all bolts to allow pan to shift and align,

My suggestion would be run it for 100 miles or so and then drain the atf, Loosen the pan and get the last bolt going.

Why? I think the fill line is above the pan joint. You will spill atf if you do not drain it. The added advantage you get by putting 100 miles is, the Torque converter atf gets mixed in.

If the threads are shot, the only option you have is to tap with the next sze. This you can safely do with the pan on, as the filings would never get in the atf loop.

Salim