Diff and trans oil

[George_H]

I'm working on getting my 79, 1500 midget on the road. I just did the rear brakes,Wheel cyl., axle bearings and seals. The book says that the diff uses 90w and the trans 80w. Are there modern multi weights I should use, or just stick to the book? (assuming I can find single weight oils) Thanks, George

 

[JPSmit]

Stick to the book. Though I think my transmission & diff both have 90 weight. Single weight oil is easy to get - Canadian Tire up here, Autozone likely there.

 

[SaxMan]

You can still get 90 weight gear oil from the local auto parts store. Just ask them for rear differential oil or gear oil. You probably should pick up a hand pump/grease gun/siphon to put it the fluid in as trying to fill the differential using a funnel and gravity tends to be an act of messiness with a bit of body contortion thrown in.

I'm not quite as sure about the transmission. I have a '69 Sprite with the 4-speed "ribcase" transmission and I put 20W/50 in it. I don't know if they had a different tranny in '79. The pump again is invaluable for refilling the transmission through the hole in the tunnel on the driver's side without making a huge mess.

 

[George_H]

The book it is. Thanks

 

[David_Doan]

I think all the A-series sprites used 20w/50 in the tranny and the 1500's use gear oil.

 

[aeronca65t]

When I was racing the Spridget with the 1500 and "Marina" gearbox, I ran 75W/90 Red Line synthetic gear oil in the gearbox and diff with no issues.


When I swapped to the 1275 with ribcase gearbox I switched to 5W-30 synthetic motor oil for the trans.

 

[Guest]

I'm about to go to ATF in my '79 trans.

 

[recordsj]

I'm about to go to ATF in my '79 trans.

why ATF in a manual transmission?

 

[Guest]

why ATF in a manual transmission?

A lot of the newer boxes use it, mine is getting groggy and I need something I bit thinner to help w/ second. It has some Lucas in it now and the colder it is, the harder it is to get into second. Once it warms up it's fine. I need the syncros to grab sooner so it needs to be thinner. With ATF it should be good from the get-go no matter the temp. it's just a measure to tie me over till I can pull it and rebuild/replace it but I still like the idea of it.