Date:         Sun, 30 Apr 1995 00:56:12 -0700 (PDT)
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         David Schwarze <schwarze@superc.nosc.mil>
Subject:      '73 Safare Update - Synthetics and shifting

Yup, it's me again,
	Last night I was putting in the 3 quarts of Mobil-1 Synthetic
lube (75-90) in the transmission.  I did this at night because I live
in a condo and if people saw me under the bus, they would probably
blow the whistle on me for working on my car in a parking spot, which
is verboten.  Anyway, I found that if I took out the drivers side
heater bellows thing, I had plenty of room to just stick the nozzle of
the gear oil container into the fill hole and squeeze.  What could be
easier?  I don need no stinkin pump!  So I am on the third quart, and
when I stick the nozzle into the fill hole and squeeze, I feel resistance
and then a pop and the resistance goes away.  DOH!!! I left the cap on
the bottle!  Now it is inside the transmission.  I try to feel around
for it inside the fill hole with my finger, but feel nothing but steel.
It's late, and I'm tired, so I decide to worry about it tomorrow.

	So today as soon as the coast is clear I decide to drain the
transmission again and hope that the cap comes out.  I clean my oil
pan till I think I can eat off of it, and then drain out $25 worth of
gear oil - no cap.  I pour the oil back into the quart bottles and squeeze
it into the transmission again.  There ain't no way I'm dropping the
transmission cause of a lousy little plastic cap (1" by 3/8").  While
I was under there I replaced the shift coupler cage thing with the one
from the junkyard.

	Next I drained the oil and replaced with 15-50 Mobil-1 Synthetic
and the "original equipment" filter.  Took out the screen and looked
for metal particles (holding my breath).  Only found a couple of small
ones, and it's been a LONG time since I took that thing off.  I think
I'm okay.

	Driving the bus, the first thing I notice is that the transmission
is a lot louder.  Almost sounds like I have a bad bearing.  The 3 quarts
of gear oil didn't quite fill it up, and I lost some draining and refilling.
Before, it was over-full.  I think I'm going to buy another quart, roll
the left rear wheel up on a block, and fill it till it runs out the hole.
I hope that quiets it down to how it was before.

	The second thing I notice is that I only have a single gear now.
Oh wait, there are 4 gears and reverse after all, but they are all within
the space that first gear occupied before.  Man, this shifter is tight!
What an amazing difference a small piece of cracked metal can make.
Between the new seat, the new shift feel, and the tires, it feels like
I'm driving someone else's bus!

	After a while, I notice the oil pressure is dropping off.  Only
10 psi at idle, just like before.  I did not expect this to happen with
the synthetic.  The only reason I went for synthetic was because I
thought it would hold its viscosity better, but so far it doesn't look
like it.  I'll have to reserve final judgement until after a long hot
freeway drive, though.

-David

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David Schwarze                     '73 VW Safare Custom Camper  (Da Boat)
SAIC Comsystems, San Diego Calif.  '73 Capri GT 2800            (Da Beast)
e-mail:  schwarze@nosc.mil         '87 Mustang Lx 5.0           (Da Sleeper)
http://papaya.nosc.mil/~schwarze   '93 Weber WG-50              (Da Piano)
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