Milky Trans. Oil

[tarcoleo 119]

My recently acquired C-85 8-speed trans. is showing

a milky oil color on the dipstick. Should I be worried

and is it enough to change the oil to solve whatever

the problem might be?

Tom in RI

[Indy w h 5]

If you have milky oil in your tranny you have water inside. That's not good

on the bearings. You will haft to change the 80/90 lube a few times to get

the milky oil out. Or if you don't change it you will do damage to th bearings

and this gets expensive.

Indy

[Kelly 1,029]

Me I drain the old oil, then add 2 qt.s reg. motor oil, drive it around for say 20 min. then drain it again, if still milky do it again then add the gear oil.

[KyBlue 655]

Ya Need to find out where the water got in, Maybe the shift boot, its where it gets in on mine (yes I know, I need to change it, its on my next Toro Order list)

Also might try flushing with a bit of K1 Kerosene to get the oil out, thou at todays prices, 80/90 is just about cheaper...

[tarcoleo 119]

Thanks felllahs, just wondering if letting the trans. drain for 2-3 days

would be a good thing. Anybody ever connect an air hose to the

fill tube to force air through the drained trans. to evaporate moisture

that might remain? Also, is there a commercial cleaner for manual

transmissions?

Tom in RI

[bell 11]

Well, generally speaking, moisture is a by-product of compressing air. I guess it might work if you have a good moisture trap on your compressor.

I would do as suggested and drain it... fill it with some motor oil and drive it around for a while and then change again, using gear lube.

[tarcoleo 119]

Well fellahs, I did it like you said--triple flushed with oil

and then filled with gear oil. Looks good. Also repaired

loose fit of boot around gear lever. This puppy had been

outside way to long. Thanks all for good advice. Love Red

Square, comrades!

Tom in RI :scratchead:

[tgranthamfd 29]

Don't want to steal the thread, but can moisture get in from a leaking brake shaft seal or bad axle seal??? :scratchead:

[tgranthamfd 29]

On the donor oil, what weight regular oil would one use to clean out the moisture?

[KyBlue 655]

30wt or 10/30 or 10/40 Its really not gonna matter much as its just in there for a short time.

[oldandred 15]

Don't want to steal the thread, but can moisture get in from a leaking brake shaft seal or bad axle seal???

the tranny is not sealed at the top were the boot is over the shifter but if you keep your tractor in a garage or good shed and no rain can get to it it want get any moisture in there so a leaking seal isnt a way for moisture to get into a tranny

Now if theres is moisture in the tranny what I do is mix half and half with 30 weight and fuel oil fill tranny drive around for a good twenty min, drain add red oil and away you go.

[oldandred 15]

Thanks felllahs, just wondering if letting the trans. drain for 2-3 days

would be a good thing. Anybody ever connect an air hose to the

fill tube to force air through the drained trans. to evaporate moisture

that might remain? Also, is there a commercial cleaner for manual

transmissions?

Tom in RI

Air from a compressor will add moisture

[HorseFixer 2,012]

Air from a compressor will add moisture

Not if you have an Air Dryer like me! :scratchead:

[tgranthamfd 29]

Have any of you folks had to do the drive and drain more than, say, 3 times?? Counting the gear oil I drained out, I have done it 3 times and it still came out a little milky and a whitish color, but it is getting less everytime. Do I just keep doing it until there is nothing but oil drained out, no matter how many times it takes? :scratchead:

[Save Old Iron 1,566]

Tom,

maybe a little off topic, but as far as evaporating moisture in an enclosed environment -- look to our friends in the air conditioning business - a vacuum applied to a closed area will actually "boil off" the moisture in short order.

That assumes you can seal the trans up enough to form a good vacuum ..... and have a vacuum pump .... etc.

[Duff 206]

Have any of you folks had to do the drive and drain more than, say, 3 times?? Counting the gear oil I drained out, I have done it 3 times and it still came out a little milky and a whitish color, but it is getting less everytime. Do I just keep doing it until there is nothing but oil drained out, no matter how many times it takes?

Terry, short of a complete tear down you may still have a few traces of "milk" in the oil but I don't think it will cause you any problems at this point. There are some nooks and crannies in the tranny that don't flush out as easily as other places. Others may correct me, but if the oil is clear except for a few traces of the milky stuff you should be all set. JMHO....

Duff :notworthy:

[tarcoleo 119]

Chuck-

Would be nice if a vacuum could be pulled on a trans. to evaporate moisture

and remove same. No way that can happen with all the seals and the gear shift

that would not permit such a negative pressure.

When I suggested attaching a compressor to a drained trans. it was with the

idea that one could run air through the system at only a sufficient pressure to

obtain flow. The air going through would not be saturated with water vapor

at such a low pressure -only slightly over atmospheric. Therefore, drying over time

would result and moisture would be evaporated from the system. How long would

that take? -probably a day or more.

Anyway, I don't have that problem anymore after three flushes with 10W30

followed by short runarounds.

Terry- I'm sure you know that to drain the trans. completely it is

necessary to open the system using the allen key tap at the bottom of the

trans. Otherwise, three flushes won't do it.

Tom in RI

[linen beige 14]

Just a thought about a vacuum in a tranny. For anyone wanting to try this with a tranny that is off the tractor just wrap it in a heavy trash bag and suck the air out with a shop vac. Instant, redneck vacuum chamber.

[tgranthamfd 29]

Just finished the 4th drain fill and drive, this time the oil looked like a dark colored honey, think I got all out that I can now. Guess it is time to fill her up with gear oil and see how she does. I looked at the dipstick right before I drained it this last time and it was clear oil, inbetween the 3rd and 4th flushes, I left the plug out and let it dain for about 20hrs. don't know if that helped some or not. Didn't have a choice, though, had to go to work. Thanks for the information and thanks for letting me borrow this topic tarcoleo. :thumbs:

[Save Old Iron 1,566]

Tom, good to hear that all the water is out.

At least you did not have to resort to Jim's redneck vacuum chamber and have us searching for this post using the words possum, dynamite or the famous last words "Hey watch this!"

:notworthy:

[linen beige 14]

"Hey watch this!"

Ya left out "Y'all"!

Glad you got her dried out Tom. :notworthy:

[Stigian 1,234]

Ah, milky oil in the trans.. had fun cleaning all that nasty gunk out of a '71 Raider trans yesterday.

Not wanting to high jack your this thread, but click the link below to see the StigsShack way of doing things

Wheel Horse Trans Flush link Thingy

[tarcoleo 119]

Ian-

That looked more like a colon flush.

Tom in RI, New England :notworthy:

[Stigian 1,234]

:thumbs:

As fun as it was it's something I don't plan to do too often, my back was killing me yesterday :notworthy:

[tarcoleo 119]

Ian-

I also had back and other problems identified as the Bouncy Wheel Horse Ride

Syndrome (known as BWHRS in clinics here in the USA) 'til I reengineered

the seat. It was replaced with a u-shaped spring with 6" between the spring

arms combined with a classic implement steel seat. Jolts are no longer

transmitted to the spine.

Tom in RI