tappets

[iggy]

saturday was a good day, i was setting the tappets on my mk2 they were very load and all were well out to bigger gaps on all of them especialy no 10 if i remember right, it had a stripped thread on the lock nut which i replaced and the engine is now nice and quiet and runs even better, took it for a run up the A127 and got a puncture on the slip road  i didnt have a jack with me as ive only been driving it on test runs so i drove on the flat about 1 mile at 15mph to crays hill and borrowed a jack with no damage to the alloy wheel ;D  sunday i changed the gearbox oil again just to flush out any of the old dirty oil which was black on the first change then later that day i read on a truimph web site that the A type overdrive box should have SAE 30 oil not EP 90 which ive used is this true? what oil do you guys use

[AlanChatterton]

EP80 or EP90 is just fine, 30 far too thin.

Careful with tappets, too tight (too quiet) means the valves may not close and then you can burn out a valve.

[iggy]

ok thanks Allen, also i read that after filling the gearbox with oil you should take the car for a run then top up the oil cause some of it will be taken up in the hydraulics on the overdrive

[AlanChatterton]

Only if the overdrive unit has been removed and emptied.

When you drain the box, you won't drain the overdrive unit without removing it.

Couldn't hurt, just don't overfill!

[iggy]

OK CHEERS FOR THE INFO ALLEN

[Richard B]

I think there are various grades of oil that the Laycock O/D will run on. The manufacturers recommendation for the gearbox takes precedence.

IIRC Hillman Hunters were recomended to have Castrol GTX in the gearbox.

[piman]

Hello Iggy,

I'd be more concerned for the tyre rather than the wheel to run for a mile on a flat?
While I adhere to Triumphs recommendation for the grade of gearbox oil (Just don't use GL5, it attacks the brass parts). Certainly other manufacturers specify engine oil and I believe Volvo used ATF fluid in their overdrive boxes so not a lot of consensus between manufacturers.
I don't remember the details but I understand that the SAE grades of gearbox oils and engine oils are not comparable as they are tested to different standards.

Alec

[ferny]

I think some Volvo use EP30 - will check later. One rumour is that Triumph recommend EP90 to help dull down the noises of our gearboxes. How true it is I don't know, but I like it.

[andy thompson]

Overdrive Spares in Rugby say that Overdrives love ATF  - not sure about the gearbox bearings tho'

[iggy]

thanks for the advice guys il stick with ep 90

[nang]

Some years ago I worked for a bus company who ran a fleet of Mercedes coaches with manual gearboxes.
They ran on ATF and went forever. No problems that I knew of.
Tony.

[andy thompson]

I'd say Mercedes engineer gearbox bearings better than Triumph - still might be worth a try

[andy thompson]

I'd say Mercedes engineer gearbox bearings better than Triumph - still might be worth a try

[DJB_Harvey]

I've always stuck with EP90 Hypoy , but make sure it's GL4 not 5 . Never had a problem .

[dazzer]

EP90 is the one to go for. This very same discussion is often had on the TR forum. Some use gearbox oil EP80/90 some use engine oil, each to their own. I can definitely say though when I was  a Leyland franchise apprentice back in the 70s manual overdrive always had EP90, Auto Borgwarner TQF and GM boxes Dexron. Later in the RAF engine oil was always SAE 30 whatever it was going in, bit thin for my liking but seemed to work OK.

Cheers
Dazzer

[Gt6s]

lagerzok wrote:

Overdrive Spares in Rugby say that Overdrives love ATF  - not sure about the gearbox bearings tho'

Auto boxes have bearings in them too.

I used to use ATF in the gearboxes of my old motocross bikes, worked great.

What would ATF work like in a big T OD box I wonder ?
It does allright in the LT77 and type 9.
Not talking about sustained road use but for sprints and hillclimbs with regular "ATF" changes.

Laurence

[Jim S]

This may be going off at a tangent but having had to scrap my BW35 autobox because so called experts put in the wrong stuff and insist its right, I thought I should warn you that there are two different types of ATF, i.e. low static friction (Soft) - GM DEXRON II and high static friction (Hard) - Ford M2C-33 F & G. The Ford spec being the one to use in all BW35 and BW65 boxes ref this Castrol Austrailia Data Sheet. http://ebookbrowse.com/auto-trans-fluids-b1191-pdf-d37180523 (sorry don't know how to hyperlink).

Now the question is which one would best suit a manual box? As Dazzers says Triumph recommend ATF in the LT77 manual box (one assumes Ford Spec) but a mate of mine (an ardent TR7 driver) swore it wrecked the bearing prematurely he always used fully synthetic gear oil. Me, I stuck in ATF a few years ago and I reckon it was Dexron as I knew no better.  I do wonder though if it would be better than the Ford Spec in this instance being as it is low friction?

Going back to a Saloon manual box I'd stick the Triumph's recommendation