Transmission Oil Change

After two days of fighting with one of the nuts on the transmission cross member with a small piece of hacksaw blade trying to cut it off without damaging anything, I finally got the damn thing off today.

I needed to lower the transmission a little to get better access to the oil fill plug because trying to get it off with a 17mm spanner started rounding off the corners. I needed to put a proper 6 point socket on it and lots of torque.

I once bought a set of wobbly extensions by mistake and was rather annoyed at myself for not looking at them properly when buying them.

But today that all changed when they turned out to be the perfect tool for the job. Check out that clearance! Perfectly flat on the socket and just cleared the tunnel. A regular U-joint style extension would not have cleared.

There was quite a bit of metal fuzz on the drain plug. I would think on a manual gearbox having a magnetic drain plug wouldn't be of much use compared to an automatic transmission where the tolerances for dirt are much much smaller. Going to take the cover off and put a new gasket as well.

As far as oil goes I know a lot of people like to use the GL1 from Napa, but the idea of using some off brand magic gear oil from Napa for a 40 year old specification is just totally ridiculous to me. I'm not going to do that. I'm going to use Valvoline VR1 SAE50 motor oil. For a splash lubricated gearbox that is not compatible with GL4 or GL5, I think this is the best solution.

I got about 1 quart out of the transmission. I didn't drain the catchment area at the back because I didn't seem to have the right tools for the job. Got about 8 oz shy of 2 quarts into it.