Gear Oil

[James Tabor]

I recently purchased a 1945 Hand Start B Show quality tractor. Realizing it had been restored 4 years ago, stored in a climate controlled garage and not ran enough to burn the paint off of the manifold I decided to change all the fluids. I removed both the transmission and rear end drain plugs and left them out for 24 hours. I noticed that the gear oil was brown like coffee with lots of cream. There are no water leaks anywhere and the tractor still remains in a climate controlled atmosphere. I installed new Shell 80W-90 gear oil that had that transparent oil look like I am used to. After filling, I drove the tractor for about 10 minutes, rechecked the fluid level and noticed it had turned the same coffe and cream brown. What's up? Is it just due to airation? None of my other tractors (1947 H Farmall, 2005 JD 5105) do this. I let the old oil set for a few days to see if any water would seperate from the oil but nothing happened. Is this normal? Thanks.

 

[PBrowning]

It sounds to me like you need to install some diesel or kerosene in place of the gear lube and drive the tractor around for a half hour -- then drain it out -- all to clean the main case cavity of the colloidal cream you are seeing. It may not have been fully cleaned initially, and/or condensation is the culprit insofar as re-introducing water in with the gear lube. The brown color is probably rust. (Just my initial thoughts!) (PatB)

 

[Jon Hurley]

How much diesel or kerosene would you put in to clean it out?
My Website

 

[PBrowning]

Fill it! If gear lube capacity is 4 gallons, I'd use four gallons of kerosone or diesel fuel.

Now -- it will come out dirty, so if its diesel, I don't think it would be wise to turn around and use it to fuel a diesel engine -- could invite a new round of grief!

 

[RobMD]

What goes in my transmissions also gets recycled in my parts washer, and then that gets burnt in an oil barrel.

The mixture of fluids is soo dirty that it would not be feasible for recycling.

It's pretty good the way i've got it set up now, so that i can continually use this fluid and it gets dirtier and dirtier, then burn it.

 

[PBrowning]

Now that sound like a plan that make sense. And yes, once fluids have had their turn in the parts cleaner, it the end of the road! More later (PatB)

 

[Lee B]

From my experiance, you've got a case of major water infiltration probably from long before it got restored over 4 years ago. Water in the engine oil is a bit easier to get rid of since the oil gets quite warm in running engines and the oil is being sprayed around by the crank vigorously. All you need to do then is ensure that fresh, dry air is constantly fed into the crankcase by any means and the oil will loose it's milky qualities in short order.

Ultimately the same method will have to be applied to the transmission case if you really want your oil here to dry out fully. You can change it a dozen times and still there will be some water contaminated oil remaining behind to corrupt the fresh charge of oil. Kerosene flushing helps but won't get it all either - NOTHING will except lots of dry clean air played over the warm moving oil.

My 44 A still has a massively cracked block and a transmission that must have been parked under a huge downspout at some time as both oils were almost pure white. I have inserted an automotive PCV valve into the system and now have dark engine oil as long as I keep 5 large bottles of Bar's Leak circulating in the cooling system. You've got me in the mood to see if I can find some really small copper tubing to hook into one of my transmission side covers and start venting it too.

It is normal for the water in the oil to NOT settle out in any substantial amount.

 

[johns48jdb]

james is off all week end and will answer you guys monday. we talked on the phone and my 48b has done the same thing. i just had the rear housing off and both axles out and we cleaned all the old oil out of the tranny. the tractor never moved out of the shop and i had to tear it all back down because the key holding the hydraulic drive gear to the pto shaft came out or didn't get put in to start with. when i removed some of the bolts holding the hydraulic pump to the housing, brown coffe with cream looking oil came ozzing out a bolt hole. this was brand new 140 weight rear end dope and it was put in a clean rear end and it still looked bad. i have to believe that it was mixing with air some way. remember the tractor was never moved an inch. james and i talked and i don't know of a vent hole in the rear end. even my old ford back hoe has a vent/filler cap on it. shouldn't the rear ends of the old jd have a vent somewhere too? any thoughts about air mixing with the oil and it just setting there running for about 5 or 6 minutes. does the gears in the tranny turn even with the tractor out of gear. i'm sure the clutch was engaged.

 

[Mike Aylward]

To flush out a transmission I often use some Hy-Gard. It seems to have solvent properties and does a better job of removing water than diesel fuel alone does. Anytime I change transmission oil in my later tractors I keep some back for "flushing" oil in the older tractors I work on. It seems diesel fuel won"t "cut" the water/oil film like hydraulic oil will. Hope this helps. Mike