While trying to find the transmission fluid dip-stick, I removed the engine cover (cowling?) that sits between the driver and passenger seat inside the van. I spent a long time looking down at the transmission for a fluid checking or top-up port.
After deciding that “no, I’m not missing it”, I looked for anything that came out of the transmission. And then I saw the 6 foot long pipe (visible in the foreground of the above picture – click the picture to enlarge) that came out of the transmission, curved up past the engine, and went right out to the front of the van under the hood (where it hid behind the air intake hose). A nice “Transmission Oil” cap covered the end of the pipe, and was attached to a 6 foot long dipstick. (Apparently this was before engineers decided to call Transmission Oil “Transmission Fluid” to reduce the number of people who put 10W-40 in their Automatic Transmissions.) Sometimes I wish that Val would buy me that Chiltons service manual so I wouldn’t have to search for everything.
While looking for the ATF dip-stick, I ran into something else interesting on the van. You can see it under the ATF dip-stick pipe if you look carefully, or just look at the photo below for a closeup.
Even though our van is a V8, it comes with 9 spark-plugs. The spare spark-plug is currently being used (along with a hoseclamp) to block a mysterious black hose. Again, having a Chiltons manual would help me figure out where the hose used to go. My best bet is that it’s some type of extra hose that goes to or from the radiator. The van runs like it is, so I’m not touching it unless I need to replace one of the spark-plugs while on the road.