Quote:
Originally Posted by bwilson4web
Just a couple of quick adds, more details later:
The failure occurs at the junction with the power cord and pad. It may be possible to rig up more support for the power cable and avoid the failure but that area also gets a lot of road water. Perhaps using the adhesive to anchor the power cable to the pan. Mostly I think it is 'cheezy.'
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I just wish we could come up with a 'live steam' heater. Some sort of cover that we could flow steam from a heater against the transaxle pan. It would transfer a terrific amount of heat, very efficiently.
Chat at you later,
Bob Wilson |
Bob (or someone else who knows for sure) -
How important is it that the user have access to that drain plug?
Electric water heaters have 120V resistive heat elements. I'm sure one could be found and bent to fit into the transaxle pan, then the pan drilled and the element installed from the side (depth permitting).
I've also suggested before that a heat pad (like the element in a coffee maker's hot plate, or the resistive element in a toaster oven) be sandwiched between the installed transaxle pan and a second pan which gets installed over top. The idea would be to remove a few (6-8??) of the transaxle pan retaining bolts (each corner, probably), and install longer, threaded rod or studs, then reinstall the original nuts, and fasten the heating element to the first (attached) pan, then install the second pan on those studs and fasten it up against so that foreign crap doesn't get into the space between the pans.
One could also install a heat element inside the pan, then seal a terminal head (like that used for block heater plugs) right to the side/bottom of the pan with a gasket material (if you can find one that screws into the surface it's mounted to). That way, you just run a short extension from the pan to wherever, and plug in the extension. The element is inside the pan, and no damage can be done directly.
Any time you put something
inside the pan, though, you have to pay specific attention to the new oil level, so that the transaxle isn't "over full". (You lose some capacity, basically).
Just a few ideas to get the gears turning.