Changing the fluid in a manual transmission?

[Caleb Thompson]

Hey Guy's I have a question for you I am planning on changing the oil in my manaul transmission this weekend what is the easiest and fastest way to do it. Is there a drain plug somewhere that lets the fluid out and if not do I need a gasket for the cover of the transmission? Thanks you all your help

 

[RHARVEY]

There is a square plate on each side of the transmission(pto) and by removing one of the lower bolts out of the plate it will drain the transmission. I used the lower center one and it drained out great. I used some of the permatex thread sealer when I put the bolt back in. And I believe that the fill plug is a 15mm allen wrench. . I think. .
Rick

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RICK
97 2500,CC,5 SPEED, 3. 54 Limited Slip,Psychotty System,K&N, Pre-Turbo ISSPRO 3" Pyrometer & Boost Guage,Silencer Ring Removed
12,000 RBW 5th Wheel Hitch,25' Excel 5th Wheel,Rancho RSX17000 Shocks,Amsoil Dealer,Straight Piped

 

[illflem]

Caleb,Rick's got it right. Just wondering what you're putting back in for lube?The dealer stuff will cost a fortune.

 

[Caleb Thompson]

Well I was thinking about putting Mobil 1 snythetic back in it. I have not heard anyone say anything about it though. But as long as it meets the requirements I think I should be OK. But please correct me if I am wrong. Thank you

 

[Bob Beauchaine]

The NV4500HD came with Castrol Syntorque 75W90 a full synthetic gear lube. You will need to use a full synthetic 75W90 in your transmission. I know Amsoil and Pennzoil make a 7590 and I believe Mobil makes one also.
Happy Trails

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1993 250 4X2 - Banks Power Pack, BD Power Injectors, K&N Air Filter, 6 gauges and tweaked pump. 27lbs boost unloaded.
Horton fan & NV4500 5 speed.

 

[Okie-Go]

I put mobil 1 5w30 in my 6 spd with a bottle of friction modifier. Works great and real smooth.

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2001 quadcab slt 2500 HO 6spd. LWB,2wd,dk garnett red, trailer tow package,camper special, anti spin 3. 54 axle, speed liner,oversized stainless steel chicken slide,66 gallon in bed aux. tank,K&N air filter,Reese 20k hitch, Terry 2000 EX 30ft. double slide 5er, 2000 20ft gooseneck for haulin jeep, firewood and huntin stuff. 5X12 tagalong for haulin the 4 wheeler. Okie Newton

 

[mikepvg]

The Factory Fill the fully synthetic Castrol Syntorq 75w85 GL4.
Mobil does NOT recommend its Mobil 1 75w90 GL5 in a GL4 application.
However, there has been @ least one person indicating in the "OIL SURVEY" (in Products Forum)see https://www.turbodieselregister.com/ubb//Forum3/HTML/002733.html
that they have used it w/o any problems. Mobil does make a GL4 & a mild EP GL5 version that would be safer long term choices, but will be hard to find.

It appears that a lot of people are using a variety of Synthetic 75w90 GL5/MT1 rated lubes w/o any problem.
The new lubes w/ the MT1 rating are less corrosive typically than even the GL4 rated lubes to the "yellow" metal syncros in this transmission but there is an unknown long term danger in how the GL5 EP additives might effect the cone clutch material on those syncros over time.

Don't buy the Syntorq from any dealer unless you like throwing money away... priced as high as $25/qt. Best place to get Syntorq is http://www.standardtransmission.com/
will cost aprox $54/gal.

Other OEM alternatives w/ good empirical data:
LE607 90 & Amsoil 2k 75w90 see Fritz's EXCELLENT website: http://dodgeram.org/tech/transmission/nv4500_spec.htm
Amsoil 80w90 GL4
RP 75w90 GL5
Red Line MT90 GL4
BG Ultra Guard 75w90 GL4-GL5
Even Castrol Syntec 75w90 GL5
Lubro-Moly MT 75w90
Torco Synthetic 75w90
The list goes on... .

Except for the LE607, one of the common denominators in these lubes is they all have the MT1 rating & are fully synthetic.

The best choice is "your" decision...
Good Luck!
Mike #ad


Another interesting product is the Lubegard Gear Fluid Supplement that touts ability to protect the synrcos but I have yet to find anyone w/ experience using it so I have no feed back: http://www.lubegard.com/



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94 2500HD 5sp 4. 10LSD 4X4 ABS w/GearVendor OD, K&N Oval w/ Pre-Filter, Straight Exhaust, Geno's Fumotovalve, AW-Direct Idle Controller, Mag-Hytec Rear, 123K miles. NRA Member. V1.

[This message has been edited by mikepvg (edited 02-22-2001). ]

 

[BILLYGEE]

Reference DC's recommendation to go with a GL-4 lube... follow it! This is what happened to me.
My last ride was a 98. 5 3500 ctd w/5spd 4500.
At about 25,000 miles I decided to switch the gear lube in the front and back and the transmission. An acquaintence of mine is a Schaeffer Oil dealer and I read to him the requirements from the owner's manual (GL-4 required). He sold me a 5gal. pail of their 75-90 synthetic gear lube with a GL-5 rating and I put it in(correct amount). Well guess what? The transmission shifted extremely hard, sometimes you really had to push hard, sometimes the gears clashed, and sometimes it took forever to make the gearchange. This got a little hairy when I passed a car once and when it came time to throw her in 5th she didn't want to go and there's oncoming traffic coming. Get the picture?
Well I dumped the transmission oil again and refilled thinking that I had to flush out all the original oil off good to make this work. Same s*#t. Called the dealer he gave me the tech no. at Scaeffer Oil. Called them, they said get back to us in a day or two. I did. The tech guy said we just found out our oil won't work in the 4500 mopar transmissions because the gear tollerances are too close in there. I tried to get some money back since the dealer screwed up and I had to dump about $75. worth of oil to find out his product don't work,lol then I hooked up as Amsoil Dealer, used their products everyplace in that ride. Amsoil Series 2000 synthetic gear lube(blue stuff) is a GL-2 to GL-5 rated. When I dumped the GL-5 Schaeffer and put in the Amsoil, she shifted like a hot knife thru butter... I have a hard time trying to figure out why some guys wanna try peanut oil or whatever in a $2500. transmission in a $25,000. + truck. Sorry for the long post but when I read all these posts about guys trying different things in their gearcase I thought I'd let you know... Bill

 

[mikepvg]

BillyGee
Sorry about your experience w/ the Schaffer Lube.
You are right, why do people take these chances w/ a $2500 part?
I think a lot of people are fed up w/ Castrols price scheme (bend over while I sell you some oil for 130% over dealer cost).
People have families/responibilties etc & to do your own transmission oil change it will cost over $100!!! w/ dealer supplied Syntorq. Give me a brake... There are plenty of other fluids & parts that we have to maintain too. .

On paper (w/ the limited AND/OR different test stats that the oil co's give you) a lot of these oils look similar. To a lay person, Schaeffers tech properties look similar to Amsoils but one works & one does not. There is a lot of unknown additives in these lubes & there is no performance criteria for these. Some other forums discuss the fact that certain Schaeffer oils contain moly. Does this one? I did notice that Schaeffers 75w90 Syn Gl-5 is NOT MT-1 rated (according to their website) & the Amsoil website indictates that it 2K 7w90 does meet MT-1.
So far, the correlation is consistant for OEM alternatives: the Synthetic GL4's or MT1's seem to work.

There are a lot of interesting games being played. How about the API game? A lot of oil companies give the appearance that their products are API certified when they actually are not. They may meet API spec's & may even be great oils but why would they risk the customers confidence w/o the API's official certification? Same answer as above: MONEY... $$$$ it cost money & every year and a % of volume over a certain level of production on top of that!

Have you posted your experience on the OIL SURVEY in the Products Forum so others might benefit?
#ad

Mike



[This message has been edited by mikepvg (edited 02-22-2001). ]

 

[gchas]

Hey, guys, I while back I was thinking about changing my transmission fluid (at about 25K miles), but when I consulted the owner's manual(page 200), I read that periodic changing of the fluid is not required. So I haven't done it. Is there any real need to do this?

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'97 Ext. Cab 2WD 35K mi,5 Sp Man 4. 10, ISSPRO Pyrometer & Boost

 

[DIESELNV]

I'm about to change my transmission fluid. I planned on using the Castrol, but was wondering what the cost of the Amsoil lube is. Is it cheap enough to take the risk? As said many times, it is a $2500 transmission.

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Keith
'98 2500 QC SLT+ LWB,12v, 5 speed, black, 3. 54, Warn winch & brush guard, PIAA chrome 520's,diamond truck box, stainless rockerpanels,diamond bed rails, spray in bedliner, hitch reciever, 33 BFG MT's, Reese 5th wheel hitch, Banks Stinger Plus, pillar mount boost & EGT,muffler & TSR gone, Uniden CB
Komfort 26' 5th wheel
'99 Durango

 

[Alaskaskiff]

I would change your transmission oil. I changed mine at 30K and 75K. Castrol first time & Amsoil second time. The Castrol oil that came out did not look good. It was gray with wear particles. I can feel the difference in the transmission towards the end of 30K miles. It seems a little stiffer and doesn't sync as well.



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Andy Raiha


96/2500/4x4/4. 10/5sp/CC