Date: Thu, 14 May 1998 06:35:21 -0700
Reply-To: Tom Young <young@SHERLOCK.SIMS.BERKELEY.EDU>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <Vanagon@vanagon.com>
From: Tom Young <young@SHERLOCK.SIMS.BERKELEY.EDU>
Subject: Redline trans oil (part 2) and a trans question
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
Hi all:
A few months ago I posted an observation about the use of Redline trans
oil. I was experiencing a noisy trans and tried the Redline oil as a
possible "fix." It didn't work, and I said as much in my post.
For the past couple of months or so it looked like I was having front oil
seal problems since I was getting an oil leak from somewhere around the seam
where the starter meets the bellhousing. Well, that doesn't appear to be
the real problem.
On the way home from the hospital the other day (physical therapy for a
pinched nerve) 1st and 3rd blew out; I limped home on 2nd and 4th.
Yesterday I drained the oil from the trans in preparation for swapping the
trans with a used unit I got from a junker (man, I hope that use trans
works!) and only got about 1,5 to 2 quarts! It looks like the Redline
was leaking past the main seal in the trans, and that was the real source
of my oil leak.
I guess in reading about the use of synthetic oils on this and other lists
I'd heard about how using synthetic oils after long use of dino oil can
result in oil leaks. My experience confirms that position; the trans had
not leaked _a_drop_ in +200K miles of dino oil use, but lost about half
its oil in the 3-4 months since the switch to Redline.
So, in my case, switching to the synthetic may have actually exacerbated
the problem. I know that trans was not going to last for ever, but
driving around at less that half-full probably didn't help any.
And now the question: Since about the only maintenance you can do on
a transmission is to change the oil seal, how difficult is it to do? It
doesn't look that hard in the manual(s), but I know their can be
differences between what the manual says and what happens in real life.
I guess to replace the seal you get a pipe of the appropriate diameter
and tap the seal back on? How difficult is it to get the seal off in
the first place?
Thanks.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Tom Young young@sherlock.SIMS.Berkeley.EDU
Lafayette, CA 94549 '81 Vanagon
---------------------------------------------------------------------
