I have used 20w-50, 10w-40, non detergent 30 and 40 weight, and EP90 over
the years. There are adherents to the motor oil school, and adherents to
the gear oil school, but I (at least) have decided one thing for sure, it
is not a good idea to run multi-viscosity detergent motor oil, as the
detergent oils, at least according to everything I have read, suspend
contaminates in the oil for the oil filter to pick up, and the viscosity
improvers also break down over time. Non detergent lets the sediment do its
normal sedimentary thing and settle to the bottom. The testing done by the
guy whose name I can't recall at Quantum mechanics seemed to indicate that
EP could lead to pressure that was too high, and possible failure. On the
other hand people ran it for years when it was recommended, and the
gearboxes and overdrives seemed to have survived at a pretty good rate.
When I rebuilt my TR gearbox myself it stopped shifting into 2nd after a
year or two, although I am sure the failure had more to do with my
rebuilding skills than the oil used, I switched to EP90 the next time around
on the theory of leaving nothing to chance and probably mostly because my
brother had a half gallon of GL4 he had bought for one of his cars that he
gave me free (like beer, the best lubricant is free lubricant!). The EP90
box does shift a little smoother, especially into 2nd, when it has warmed
up.
I for one don't have any heartburn or sleepless nights with either a medium
weight non-detergent motor oil, or an EP Gear oil in the box, so I guess I
am lubricant agnostic for this particular application. I probably wouldn't
even worry too much if I was running 20w-50, which I did for many years in a
couple of cars, including a Triumph and a Healey, but I would probably
switch it to non-detergent or gear oil at the next gearbox oil change
service.
Greg Lemon
--------------------------------------------------
From: "David Porter" <frogeye@porterscustom.com>
Sent: Tuesday, December 1, 2015 5:40 PM
To: "Randall" <TR3driver@ca.rr.com>; "'Triumphs List'"
<triumphs@autox.team.net>
Subject: Re: [TR] TR3 gearbox oil leak
> The problems weren't severe. There were pump failures and crappy shifting.
> I think if the car was fitted with an overdrive the gear oil would
> certainly give performance issues. Esp. In cold weather.
> I can't speak to the company's owner manual printing policy..
> Dave
>
> On December 1, 2015, at 4:05 PM, David Porter <frogeye@porterscustom.com>
> wrote:
>
> yes..second series 5spds.. TR7 & 8's in particular They switched to ATF
> if I recall.. it's been a while:-)
>
>
> On 12/1/2015 3:33 PM, Randall wrote:
>>> ..before I get blasted.. a little history.. back in the seventies
>>> Triumphs were experiencing many gear box failures.
>> Was that with TR6 or TR7?
>>
>>> They sent
>>> a factory
>>> rep to our shop (for one).. turns out the change to 80-90
>>> gear lube was
>>> the culprit...
>> That's interesting, since supposedly they switched to recommending gear
>> oil for exactly the same reason (but about 15 years
>> earlier).
>>
>> As far as I know, they never stopped officially recommending gear oil for
>> the TR6 gearbox. If it really caused such severe
>> problems, you'd think they'd fix that in the 15 or so years (and 5
>> different car models) that they kept recommending gear oil.
>>
>> -- Randall
>>
>>
>> ** triumphs@autox.team.net **
>>
>> Donate: http://www.team.net/donate.html
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>>
>>
>
> --
> Dave Porter Porter Custom Bicycles 2909 Arno St. NE Albuquerque, NM
> 87107 505-352-1378 Go HERE: my world www.porterbikes.com/
>
> ** triumphs@autox.team.net **
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