After reading a few posts about hard shifting manual transmissions and realizing that mine was having this symtom especially from 1st gear to second, I thought it would be a good idea to try changing the oil. I tried to find the Redline that was mentioned but no luck around here. Finally went to Canadian tire to see what they had. I came out with three liters of Motomaster Semi-Synthetic 75w90 and two 250ml bottles of Slick 50 ManTrans. So last Saturday I crawled under my van to begin the task. Well, those nice German folk could have made those two plugs, the drain and the filler more accessable, NO ?! After much ado I got the drain out and finally ! the filler plug, the hardest, then got my trusty transmission fluid pump and went about filling the pump and filling the transmission. That took a while ! The oil that came out was BLACK. AND...the drain plug magnet had a fair amount of metal particles attached to it ???????? I guess that would be normal after 260,000km and not ever having the oil changed before ! Well, the good news is that it was all well worth the trouble. My transmission shifts much smoother now, especially when cold. Thanks to all who posted messages about the hard shifting transmissions which got me going on this one and I hope my message will encourage others to go save their transmissions before it's too late. Cheers Frank
-- * Frank Condelli * Almonte, Ontario, Canada * * ad793@Freenet.carleton.ca * '87 VW Westy, '69 MGB & Lionel Trains http://members.aol.com/RAlanen/index.html |
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