Thanks all!
After posting, I remembered I had a pump a bit like the one in Feather's pictures, except it only had one tube. Stupidly it is labelled "suction pump" but of course what sucks blows! So that is a possibility.
Berg's method is almost identical to what I did for my D1 as mentioned except I used a shower hose instead of garden hose, and you do have to f*** about a lot to get the hose to fit the mouth of the oil bottle with it's bottom cut off and then again at the other end to get the narrower pipe to go in the filler hole. It also has the disadvantage of not being able to see the fluid going down the pipe. So you can end up spilling a load. But I like the idea of being able to do a two person job on your own this way. Guess you just need a clean oil pan, on the outside and a bowl to catch the overspill.
Backinblack. Like it, but needed to get it done today and nowhere nearby to get a pump like the one in the picture.
Juke, never thought about heating the oil, great idea, although I always buy ATF and in fact all oils in 4.54 litre (gallon) so it would take longer to heat. I do have a hand pump a cheapo £10 job from the local car bitz shop, which I use to empty the engine oil out of the sump, as the sump plug is refusing to come out. In fact I dare not use brutal means to get it out, envisioning stripped threads at the very least. So, the pipe goes down the dipstick tube, so not huge bore and it takes a while and a lot of effort to do it, but it does do it. First time I left it to siphon out and it took 3 days!
Thinks. Backinblack's pump and a long hose, would be easier for the engine oil.
So, in the end, I did use the garden sprayer I used last time. First I went and got a rake and raked out a ton of gravel from under the car. This is not pea gravel (which always get trodden into the house) think Chesil Beach, irregular stuff about 1" long. NO burglar can walk across it silently! This gave me a lot more room, then I pressurised the sprayer with 2 litres of oil in it and locked the handle down then I dragged it under the car, and righted it. The end of the tube is a solid pipe with the trigger on it. I then squirted oil into the gearbox until it spilt out.
Once that was done I decided that I really did not have enough room to be under there when the engine was running etc, so I jacked the front axle up pretty high, shoved two big axle stands underneath and then, using the new angle of the vehicle, repeated the topping up exercise. I know this is completely not according to Hoyle, as the Americans would say, but, having done the job before, I have a pretty good idea of how much more fluid goes in once the engine is running and the box is put through all the gears. Anyway, I am sure I have not overfilled it, and it was working pretty well before, despite what is obviously a bit of a leak.
So once that was done, I tried to find where the leak is/was. Very hard without steam cleaning the whole thing off, but I noticed the front horizontal edge of the sump/pan was very clean but wet. So I reasoned that this might be where it is coming out, and hence clean. But it may be also coming out of the torque converter housing, as there is oil present there too. But this may be from the engine. Who knows? So I gently tweaked the gearbox sump bolts, some of which were a bit looser than others.
I can think of another use for a garden sprayer, fill it with Gunk or whatever degreaser mix you use then you can spray with one hand and brush with the other, then you can refill with water and use it to rinse it all off. I'll probably buy another one and clean under the gearbox area to see if I can really get to the bottom of the leak.
Obviously you cannot use the same one for everything, but they are just a bit more controllable than hand-held and pumped ones, and they hold a ton of stuff. The big disadvantage is their size, but, as I have explained, once pressurised, provided the handle stays locked down, you can put them on their side to move them, and then put them upright again.
So, thanks all. You made me realise that I had to hand at least four ways of doing this, and any of the methods mentioned would work. Just a question of taste or what job you are doing. I think the big thing was I had lunch, which gave me time to cool down and think sensibly. I often say the coffee cup is a hugely important tool in the tool box, it gives you time to think straight. But the best thing was simply to rake out the gravel!
I will now post and await all the people telling me to get wifey to do the biz with the gears while I finish the job off properly under a horizontal car! Quite right too!
