Gear box oil change

[SprintMWU773V]

Play safe with 80/90 gl4 spec oil if I were you packaging can be confusing so watch out.

[mahony]

I was told by jamie from sprintspares many moons ago, always top up with 90 and refill with 80.

[SprintMWU773V]

Straight EP80 and EP90 are very hard to come by these days. The whole business bothered me for several years and then I went on the advice of others for the EP80W90 GL4. I found some in Halfords and bought all their stock. Also I highly recommend the "Back axle" filling device from Machine Mart, cost under £8 and does the job really well. I found the plastic pipe not to be as flexible as I could have done with but even a better piece of pipe is only going to cost a quid or so.

http://www.machinemart.co.uk/shop/produ ... -equipment I happen to live very close to Machine Mart so it made sense for me but I have also seen these quite cheap on tool stands at events and markets.

[Mad Mart]

I usually use EP80W-90 GL4 in the box. Mary got me some on Saturday & I've just noticed it's GL5. Also got EP90 GL5.

[sprint95m]

I bought a gallon of the old fashioned EP90 from a farmer, who along with the usual tractors had a fleet of Sherpas (probably over 20), which he decanted from a 25 litre drum. Might be worth trying a farm machinery supplier rather than a motor factor?

[Nick C]

...had a fleet of Sherpas (probably over 20), which he decanted from a 25 litre drum.

How many Sherpas can you fit in a 25L drum then?

[Jon Tilson]

Time to put this issue to bed once and for all...(again)

The issue is with EP additives of a certain period having a detrimental effect on sintered components in overdrive units only. Thus you only need to worry about the issue at all if you have overdrive. In recent years the EP additives have been changed so that no bad things happen to sintered bits. The other issue is that friction modifying additives like slick 50 or molyslip should NOT be used in overdrives either because they stop the friction cone cluthces working properly.

The correct weight oil for a Sprint box is 75....so anything recent with that weight will be fine. The smaller boxes wee supposed to be 90 IIRC so anything modern weighted at 80W (winter) 90 will also be fine.

Modern oils will do your box no harm. In fact you are more likely to get old stock oil from the bad period that WILL be bad for your overdrive if you forage around farms and old outlets..

Recent Castrol 80W 90 will do the stuff...or you can pay extra for Penrites marketing if it makes you feel better.
Overdrives run quite happiliy in MGB's on 50 weight engine oil anyway...so I dont know why we all worry really...
The interesting thing is that the SD1 LT77 box was supposed to use 75 weight oil and then they changed it to use ATF...
Go figure...

Jonners

[zombeh]

The big flat rectangular filter will just pull out (it shouldn't fall off by itself I don't think but it's not exactly stuck in) there are no bits to lose.
The round filter is under the larger of the three plugs which should unscrew fairly easily given a sensible tool (a bit of flat bar with two pins in it) there's a little aluminium spacer washer in with this one, don't lose it. The other two plugs have scary things behind them.

You also want to make sure you get the o/d sump nice and clean, the ripply stripe of soft squidgy grey stuff you'll see stuck to the bottom is pulverised steel stuck to a magnet, get all of that out.

[sprint95m]

80W/90 GL4 is available from the local agricultural supplier priced at £42 + VAT for a 25 litre drum.
It is a big seller, they order several pallets at once. (This price is the latest, so reflects high crude oil cost.)

They also keep this oil in smaller "top up" containers.

[olr159w]

Very much a defibrillated thread but I was wondering what folks consider the refill volume is for a Sprint with OD?

Manual says 1.15 litres no OD, 1.9 litres with OD. I refilled mine and it started overflowing early into the 4th blast of approx 500cc from a giant syringe thing I have.

Suggesting it took maybe 1.5 to 1.6/7 of oil

Does it need to be run for a bit and then topped up?

cheers

[Carledo]

Very much a defibrillated thread but I was wondering what folks consider the refill volume is for a Sprint with OD?

Manual says 1.15 litres no OD, 1.9 litres with OD. I refilled mine and it started overflowing early into the 4th blast of approx 500cc from a giant syringe thing I have.

Suggesting it took maybe 1.5 to 1.6/7 of oil

Does it need to be run for a bit and then topped up?

cheers

I've never concerned myself with what the book says, it probably starts with a new clean empty box. Unless you are starting with such, the book figure is irrelevant, no matter how long you leave the plug(s) out, you'll never get ALL the old oil out!

All I do is, 1) Ensure the car is level, 2) fill it till oil comes out the filler, 3) give it 1/2 an hour to settle and recheck, topping up if required.

Steve

PS, A quick addendum to Jon's comments above, the SD1 gear oil changed spec soon into production as it was found the original spec stuff made 2nd gear impossible to engage when the oil was cold. It generated quite a bit of fruitless warranty gearbox work for those of us working in BL dealers at the time! LT77s to this day and in all applications still run happily on ATF.

[olr159w]

Thanks Steve. Yeah I agree with all that; I just think it's a big % difference between 1.6.7 and 1.9. Nearly 20%

I've run it around the block now. I'll recheck the levels and see where its at