Transmission oil

Clem Clement

Well-known member
Nick Arrington and Ray Lambert came by today to take some of my old family stuff to auction for me. Very nice of them!! We were looking at my'39 peeekup and I complained that the ****** made noise in third gear. I'm using Amsol 85/90W. They say that is wrong and I need 160W oil. Is this the same oil Brattons offers nomenclatured 600W? If not where can I get 160 W oil?

Clem
 
Nick Arrington and Ray Lambert came by today to take some of my old family stuff to auction for me. Very nice of them!! We were looking at my'39 peeekup and I complained that the ****** made noise in third gear. I'm using Amsol 85/90W. They say that is wrong and I need 160W oil. Is this the same oil Brattons offers nomenclatured 600W? If not where can I get 160 W oil?

Clem
Around here Mobil offers 600w but only in a five gallon pail. Perhaps in your area they may be willing to sell a smaller container.
 
My personal thought .... Going to a higher viscosity may quiet and soothe worn or damaged ****** parts and reduce leaks, but may slow the syncro's during shifting.

I use StaLube gear oils. My ****** had 140w in it and the synco's were grinding when shifting if I didn't leave a long pause between gears. Based on threads and postings I changed to the lower viscosity 85-90w and the problem stopped. Shifts very nicely ever since.
 
My personal thought .... Going to a higher viscosity may quiet and soothe worn or damaged ****** parts and reduce leaks, but may slow the syncro's during shifting.

I use StaLube gear oils. My ****** had 140w in it and the synco's were grinding when shifting if I didn't leave a long pause between gears. Based on threads and postings I changed to the lower viscosity 85-90w and the problem stopped. Shifts very nicely ever since.

All so true. Especially in cold temperatures. Been there, done that.
Best to stick with Mr. Ford's recommendation - S.A.E. 90 or as close as you can get.
 
Mobile 600-W is steam cylinder oil and not 600w oil/lubricant. It is not an SAE number as we normally use today, it is the ISO VG rating and is around 140 SAE gear oil. Likewise, engine motor oils SAE are rated different than Gear oils SAE.
 

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Yes-the lube I got was Mobil 600W Steam cyinder Oil. 6oow is not the weight but mfg spec. it is around 150W. Got a 5 gal pail on line from a specialty lube place with free shipping when I bought 250.00 in combined chemicals/lubes. Cant remember the place. I put it in my 35 and 40 trans, rears and roto tiller with leaky worn gear box.. it did quiet things down a bit and very little leaks on floor. I didn't notice any difference in shifting.
 
Mobile 600-W is steam cylinder oil and not 600w oil/lubricant. It is not an SAE number as we normally use today, it is the ISO VG rating and is around 140 SAE gear oil. Likewise, engine motor oils SAE are rated different than Gear oils SAE.
Glad you shared this. You are of course correct.
 
What does STP do when it gets hot? Stay thick or thin out some?
and the Bigger Q is: with the womens quit pestering me for a ride so I can drive in peace and enjoy the sounds of a smooth and quiet flathead??
 
when i was a kid, my first car was a 36 chevy standard.the standard ****** was a small wimpy thing that would not hold oil no matter what you did, so i burned up one every summer. luckily they were still in junk yards then. a brite idea was to just run straight stp in the trans, and i never had a problem after that!
 
600W was used in the days of straight-cut gears. Ford went to an ancestor of EP type gear oils in 1932, when spiral cut gears were used in upper gears of the new transmission for both trans and rear end. The new formulations were for the sliding caontact and high local pressures in spiral cut gears. They really should have gotten working on this earlier, for the benefits of rear end gears. 600 is not for the V8 transmission!
Look in your owner's manual...there are direct modern equivalents of what the manual says.
 
Oil may not be the problem in the first place. If it has a full measure of any kind of gear oil in it now, it should not be making much noise. There could be a problem with one or more bearings in the gearbox. In high gear, it might even be the drive shaft carrier bearing or even something in the rear axle. The torque tube has a tendency to reflect sounds to the nearest opening in the tube. As far as lubricant is concerned, you can get Sta-Lube GL4 in more than one SAE grade at several of the major auto parts chains. The GL4 is mild EP that replaces the old GL3 SAE-140 that FoMoCo used for summer weather back in the day. NAPA usually carries the SAE 140 and the SAE 85W/90 for winter use.
 
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Locally all I been able to find that is not GL5 in less than a 5 gallon pail is a all mineral 90 weight GL1 that says on the label for older ford tractor transmissions. Wonder how that would work in the 39 top loader? Thanks guys!
 
I was working as a mechanic for a fleet of Ford T-750's and T -850's dump trucks and we had 5 new '66 T-750's with Clark transmissions and one developed a noisy transmission and we always did all the repairs rather than go to the dealer for warranty due to the lost time factor with the truck out of service too long with the dealer service. I removed the transmission and disassembled it a couple of times and could not find anything wrong. We got a Ford factory service rep to come and look at it and he had us change the oil from 90wt to 10w mineral oil. We thought that was pretty thin, but we changed the oil and the noise was gone.
 
Locally all I been able to find that is not GL5 in less than a 5 gallon pail is a all mineral 90 weight GL1 that says on the label for older ford tractor transmissions. Wonder how that would work in the 39 top loader? Thanks guys!

Go to your local NAPA store; they sell quarts, gallons, and 5-gallon drums. They either stock it or will order it.
 
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