Date: Thu, 11 May 2000 21:43:36 -0700
Reply-To: Shawn Wright <swright@MAIL.SLS.BC.CA>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Shawn Wright <swright@MAIL.SLS.BC.CA>
Subject: Update on my failed Ring&Pinion...
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I got a call from Russ at Autospiel today to tell me that the brand
new Ring&Pinion he ordered from the dealer has a very minor
defect, which he found when checking the gears with "mechanics
blue". I don't know if this is standard procedure when installing
gears, but I certainly appreciate that he found this, and is obviously
taking extra care in putting this together.
I think the doubts I had last week with Autospiel were unfounded,
now that I have let him investigate - Russ has agreed to essentially
rebuild the trans a 2nd time with no labour charge, while I must buy
the new parts. Possibly he feels partially responsible for the R&P
failing so soon after his rebuild, I don't know. I suspect that the
amount of metal in the oil from the original failed bearings last year
may have caused the pitting in the R&P, but I'll never know, I guess.
I now have to wait until next week for new R&P to come from the
US, so I've ordered some Redline MT90 to put in the trans. I hope
this will provide enough protection for the R&P. After reading up on
GL-4 vs GL-5, I'm now wondering if it's not better to just run GL-5
gear oil and protect the R&P at the expense of the much cheaper
syncro rings. Or maybe the best option is one of the GL-4 & GL-5
rated synthetics out there - so far, I've found that Amsoil and
NeoSynthetics both make such a gear oil, which employs non-
sulphur based EP additives to meet both GL-4 and GL-5 specs.
Has anyone used either of these oils? I called two local VW
dealers and both use Pennzoil GL-5 in their service shops, or the
VW synthetic (at $27/liter!), so GL-5 can't be that bad on sycnros
can it? I'm still a little uncertain about using Redline, as my R&P
(and bearings) failed when I had MTL in the trans (for 3 years
~25k). Maybe they would have failed with any oil, I'll never know.
The part that still bothers me is that Redline MTL and MT90 both
state that they are not for differentials or hypoid gears, which is
what the Vanagon trans has, even though they do meet the GL-4
spec set out by VW. Has anyone run Redline MTL or MT90 for a
long time, say more than 150k km?
Another thing that bugs me: if GL-5 is so bad for most
transmissions, then why is GL-4 nearly impossible to find? I've
been to nearly a dozen auto parts stores, and not one carries a GL-
4 gear oil in stock.
Still a little puzzled...
Shawn Wright, I.T. Manager
Shawnigan Lake School
swright@SLS.bc.ca
http://Zuiko.sls.bc.ca/swright
http://www.sls.bc.ca
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