I got all the bolts off the transmission pan of my 1999 Cherokee but I can not for the life of me get the dipstick tube to let go. I hit it with PB Blaster and heated it up with a torch and even with all my weight the damn thing does not budge. Any advice would be appreciated.

 

They're really common to stick together and are an absolute pain to separate. I had to unbolt the upper half from the block, pull it out together, heat the join and pull upwards with my boot in the pan to get it to split.

If you are able to remove them as one, I'd just advise you do that and leave them together when you refit.

 

Yeah, if it ain't broke, don't fix it! I'd rather have it stuck together than leak.

 

I was able to unbolt the top half from the block and then twist it back and forth until it came loose.

 

Mine did the same thing. I thought it would never break free. It would twist and move but not break free. After soaking overnight with the pan still bolted up, I grabbed it with needle nose vice grips and used a slide hammer on the vice grips. 😂 Probably not the best technique but I was determined it was coming out one way or another. Maybe I should’ve tried the boot technique.

 

just undo the single bolt that attaches the entire dipstick tube to the block and lower the pan and tube to the ground

If your truck is not lifted, you may need to jack it up a couple of inches, but I dont think so

Once the pan and tube is out, I fitted locking multigrips to the top section, and hammered that (gently) from below, which separated the tube halfs

 

That's exactly what I had to do when I pulled mine a few years ago. I forget how the hell I got it out in one piece, but I did. After you get it out, use the torch to burn the o-ring out, and get another from the hardware store to replace it. I think that's what I ended up doing.

 

Like said, pull the entire tube down with the pan. Dont even bother with that o-ring. You have a cooler line and the exhaust to work around as well once the pan is loose. Transmission wiring takes more or less the same path so try not to snag any of it with the upper mounting bracket. I know it will come out as one piece. Ive seen it done. This is what you are up against if you drop it in one piece.

 

As that excellent picture shows....the bottom half is welded to pan. The upper half SHOULD separate at the slip joint.....NOT. You can usually just drop the pan far enough to get the filter out and the gasket on and swipe the pan with a solvent soaked rag to get it clean-ish. Don't forget to remove and clean the magnets and then reinstall

 

Why are you removing the pan?

 

^^^ ditto

 

It was leaking a bit. Next I have the rear main seal and oil filter adapter to fix and I should be leak free.

 

Okay. That makes sense then.