OT- Putting Oil In Differential

[Glug]

Just nuke it in the Wife's microwave and it will be real thin. Do it when She is not home, She'll never know, oh and forget where You read this.

Until the plastic bottle melts first, due to localized intense heat, and the oil goes all over. And I don't mean synthetic - the old oil that _really_ stinks. The stink that is a gift that just keeps on giving. "Hi honey! I got you a surprise! A new microwave! Oh, why? Something in the old one burned up. It really stunk so I got rid of it. I don't think it will happen to the new one!"

I can recall my not fun experiences with diff oil as a young lad. With no internet to offer advice (not that there are many tricks, especially if you need all the bottle volume). You guys know the drill. Stick the hose on the bottle, try and squeeze it. Try and heat it. Blow the hose off and get oil everywhere. Too cheap to buy a stupid pump, and not wanting to admit defeat. Jeez, the stink. The newer synth is not nearly as bad (or as thick).

I can remember having a small spot of the stuff on the knee of a pair of jeans. No matter how much time passed and washings, whenever the sun would hit that spot I would smell that smell. Smelled like race cars. Unfortunately, I can no longer fit into those jeans of my youth.

The cheap sprayer is a great tip. Only gotcha is, for limited use, different fluid types for different vehicles complicates things.

[MrWhoopee]

Lots of good advice and old tricks. Recently used one of the bottle pumps to do all the various gear boxes on my '68 GMC 4wd. A little tedious, but worked well with no mess.

In my wasted youth I used the gravity feed/hanging bottle trick on my old VW bus.It took a long time, so I got distracted with other things. Overfilled and spilled some on the ground of course. When I rolled underneath to put the plug back in I dragged my ponytail in the oil. It took several washings with shampoo and acetone to get the smell out.

Speaking of that smell, the current version of Poulan chainsaw bar oil is grey in color (instead of the typical amber) and smells like 90wt. Assume it's recycled.

[Willy]

One interesting thing I learned accidentally about that smell is that bugs apparently love it.
About 35-40 years ago I had a Chev 1 ton 4x4 that I decided to change all of the gear oil on. Two big diffs, a transmission and a transfer case gave me a lot of gear oil to dispose of.
The truck had a big wooden deck so I decided to slather all of the old oil onto the deck's surface that summer evening in order to let it soak in overnight.

Got up the next morning to see how well the wood deck had soaked up the oil and I couldn't believe my eyes. Every flying bug within 5 miles had landed and stuck onto the deck's surface! The deck literally looked like it was covered with a shag carpet. I know most folks don't care for the smell but bugs seem to find it irresistible
So if you ever have a summer evening party planned and you don't want any bugs in the backyard, coat a sheet of plywood with gear oil and leave it on the other side of the house.

[A.K. Boomer]

Always good to have it at least room temperature before pumping it in or it is much more difficult --- if you forget it can still be done just takes about twice as long and if your using a plastic gallon mounted pump you can't force it or you will break it,

another trick of the trade, put a hole in the top of the gallon jug --- that's where you insert the end of the fill hose when your done making it a closed loop system even of it tips over,,, I usually change rear diffs or tranny fluid without spilling a single drop and that's a nice change compared to trying to squeeze a bottle at an awkward angle...

[rws]

Thanks all. I'll get one of the pumps that fit the jug. I'm not sure which has the worst, lingering smell, diesel fuel or gear oil. Either one is not welcome inside the house!

[JRouche]

Thanks all. I'll get one of the pumps that fit the jug. I'm not sure which has the worst, lingering smell, diesel fuel or gear oil. Either one is not welcome inside the house!

I am a lil weird but I love the smell of crude oil. JR

[lynnl]

Thanks all. I'll get one of the pumps that fit the jug. I'm not sure which has the worst, lingering smell, diesel fuel or gear oil. Either one is not welcome inside the house!

I can see why you're searching for the best method, if you're doing it inside the house.

[thaiguzzi]

At 100K miles I'm going to change the gear oil in the differentials on my truck. And of course, that hole is not easy to get to. In the past, I had to buy the oil by the quart and use one bottle with the spout to squeeze oil in. You couldn't squeeze but about half of it, then you had to refill it. What a pain, but I that was 30 years ago! Anyone have a better/easier way? I hope?

What does the manual say, re mileage / oil change?
Serious question, as a lot of modern cars, 1 ton Japanese pick up trucks etc, are meant to run 500,000 kms before even oil level inspection, let alone change.
Are'nt some modern cars even sold with tamper free no-change-ever gearboxes and rear axles?

[Willy]

Yes it's true, we live in a disposable world.

Briggs and Stratton recently came out with an entry level lawnmower engine specially designed to never require an oil change. The reasoning being that most of the folks that engine is aimed at will never change the oil anyway so air filtration etc. was enhanced to allow the engine to live longer.

The Briggs engineers however were the first to admit that the engine would certainly benefit from an oil change. It just wasn't required for the time frame that the the original buyer would keep it. I believe the target was 150 hours of actual use time.

[mattthemuppet]

The CVT Subaru used in the 2010 Outback was supposed to need no fluid changes for the life of the car. Which was correct, because as soon as the CVT failed many owners junked the car instead of pay $4-5000 to replace it Now they recommend changing the fluid every 100,000 miles. I do a drain and refill (about 1/2 the fluid) every 40-50,000 miles.

[rws]

What does the manual say, re mileage / oil change?
Serious question, as a lot of modern cars, 1 ton Japanese pick up trucks etc, are meant to run 500,000 kms before even oil level inspection, let alone change.
Are'nt some modern cars even sold with tamper free no-change-ever gearboxes and rear axles?

My truck is an '05. I have done a fair amount of towing, won't hurt a thing. Same with the transfer case. I have drained and changed trans filter twice, once because it had 80K at that time, then last year tracking down why the parking pawl wasn't working. In my view, a no-change part is made to replace, not for me.

[Glug]

I can see why you're searching for the best method, if you're doing it inside the house.

Heh. When I was young I rented a condo, and the bathroom was upstairs.. The carpet in the lower level was a very light color. I was young and naive about carpet, and doing a lot of race car work in the garage (which was shared - another story)... it did not end well for the carpet. Fortunately I was able to steam clean it all out.

A guy I knew back in the 90's built racing corvettes. It was a serious business, he was great at it, and I think that old codger is still racing. Because he didn't want to be so isolated from his family, out in the shop, the wall between the shop and livingroom was glass, with a sliding glass door.

[A.K. Boomer]

Thanks all. I'll get one of the pumps that fit the jug. I'm not sure which has the worst, lingering smell, diesel fuel or gear oil. Either one is not welcome inside the house!

I actually like the smell of diesel (and know a few girls that like it too) --- but gear oil? ughhh, it actually smells like BO...

[A.K. Boomer]

Yes it's true, we live in a disposable world.

Briggs and Stratton recently came out with an entry level lawnmower engine specially designed to never require an oil change. The reasoning being that most of the folks that engine is aimed at will never change the oil anyway so air filtration etc. was enhanced to allow the engine to live longer.

The Briggs engineers however were the first to admit that the engine would certainly benefit from an oil change. It just wasn't required for the time frame that the the original buyer would keep it. I believe the target was 150 hours of actual use time.

Boy that takes the cake --- if that's not a disposable world I don't know what is --- as if never changing tanny fluid is not bad enough, now little engines - engines that like it or not have a "consumption rate" you might be able to seal a trans for a long time against leaking but all engines burn oil to some degree, so it's days are numbers in two ways --- hashed out oil and too low a level for the splash system to even work... only one outcome --- connecting rod through the block...

[Willy]

Boy that takes the cake --- if that's not a disposable world I don't know what is --- as if never changing tanny fluid is not bad enough, now little engines - engines that like it or not have a "consumption rate" you might be able to seal a trans for a long time against leaking but all engines burn oil to some degree, so it's days are numbers in two ways --- hashed out oil and too low a level for the splash system to even work... only one outcome --- connecting rod through the block...

No, oil level still needs to be maintained, it just does not require an oil change for the expected ownership period. Apparently one of the changes also included provisions to mitigate any debris entering the crankcase when adding oil. B&S's research indicated that this target market is inclined not to not change oil so they made the engine more neglect proof.
It is actually a superior product because of the changes in order to allow the anticipated neglect. As one of Brigg's engineers stated, give it a seasonal oil change and it will undoubtedly last longer than the previous model that it replaced.