I read somewhere that before an old Land Cruiser is sold it is ritually and satanically neglected by its owner. I guess the duration of this process depends. It is also a truism in life that whenever someone gains control of anything, the first phase, the honeymoon, is easy because the previous owner is to blame for everything. So… take the rest of this with a grain of salt.
Land Cruiser in the Garage getting fluid change.
I lost confidence in previous owner after seeing the extremely dirty engine oil, clearly more than a year old. That nasty stuff “informed my decision” to give the rest of the vehicle a flush. This being an old school 4wd, there’s quite a few reservoirs of oil:
- engine oil
- transmission
- transfer case (a second transmission that control selection of 2wd, 4wd and 4wd low)
- rear differential
- front differential
I looked everything up on IH8Mud. Incredible resource! Since I won’t be flooding the drive train with river crossings I can reward the car with the best oils. Honestly this vehicle was designed to consume old school oil, this synthetic stuff is overkill. There would be no issue running the $12/gallon 80w90 from Walmart. Since this vehicle is so new to me I want to experience the best and perhaps improved fuel economy (don’t hold your breath on that one). Later on after the honeymoon I can cheap out and see if there’s a notable difference.
- Engine oil is Rotella T6 5w40 that I had around the house for the motorcycle and Porsche 930. ($21/gallon at walmart).
- Transmission oil is tricky. The H55F transmission has “yellow metal” inside, used for synchronizers and it is corroded by some implementations of the GL5 gear oil spec, something about sulphur. I also read that some implementations don’t corrode yellow metal. From IH8Mud I see happy users running Redline MT90, this is a GL4 spec oil, but synthetic 75w90. Retail is $60/gallon.
- Transfer case is separated from transmission by a seal that often fails. For this reason its a good idea to run the same oil in both places, so I use the same Redline MT90 75w90 gear oil. $60/gallon.
- Differentials are high load and don’t contain yellow metal, they can use the best modern gear oil without a problem. I read high and low and decided on Delvac 75-90. Mostly from recommendations by Porsche race technicians. I see prices from $80/gallon at porsche race shops down to $40/gallon at reasonable places.
I really need to get the transmission done since I can feel the gears spinning on every shift. Am waiting up to a second for the gears to stop before I make the next shift. Where to find redline mt90? There are Redline Distributors, but they don’t sell to the public. There are lots of places that carry Redline motor oil, but no one seems to carry their gear oil. Amazon sells MT90 for $15/quart or $60/gallon. I happen upon “Oil Can Henry’s” in Issaquah. They have the Redline MT90, but don’t sell to the public, only if you get a transmission change. Hmm. How much for a transmission change with MT90? $69.99. How much oil does that include? Up to 5 quarts. Cool! Given that MT90 list price is $15/quart, I’m getting $75 of oil, in my transmission, for $5 cheaper than retail for the oil alone. I won’t question that and head right over. When I arrive and am asked how I can be helped:
“I need 4.9 liters of Redline MT90 in my transmission, how much will that be?” $69.99. Cool! Ok, lead the way sir! I drive into an immaculate engine bay, bustling Cap and Bow Tie Wearing mechanics surround the car. They start checking all fluids. They do this for free, “Its policy”. I realize later that this is a great perk. They have impact tools to free up stubborn fill bolts. I have them to thank for the ease with which my fill bolts later came out when I did the other fluids.
As they’re filling the transmission I ask how much to have the transfer done. “$69.99.” How about the diffs? “69.99 each”. Wow! I guess that’s off the table. A full service for this vehicle would be $70 * 4 == $280. I ask if I might be able to purchase 3 more quarts of MT90 for my transfer case. Uh.. Sure. But we don’t have a container. “How much? $8 a quart.” “Sweet! I’ll go home and get a container. Charge me now.” I’m back in 20 minutes with an old gallon oil container and so have obtained the oil for the transfer case.
Shifting is much improved and transmission is much quieter. I can feel a small amount of gear movement as a shift, but more like my Porsche now and not a problem at all.
I decide I need all the new fluids before replacing any fluids at home. No point cleaning up twice. So where to find the diff fluid?
I call around the seattle area. None of the usual places carry delvac. There’s a truck stop 30 miles away that will sell it, but too far and only in gallons. Diffs only hold 2.5 + 3 liters, I need just under 6 quarts. Finally I stumble on Autozone in seattle, they don’t have it but they know of a local oil change place that sells it. I call up the local oil change franchise. Yes they have delvac 75w90 but they don’t have a computer code to sell it to me. I hem and haw, and talk the guy into selling it to me. Again $8 a quart! I need 2.5 liters for the rear diff, 3 for the front. I’ll bring my own container.
I arrive 40 minutes later with a store-bought $2.99 oil receptacle that can hold 12 quarts. Good news, the guy found some old quart containers and filled them for me. Bad news he only had 2.8 liters left. Dang! Thats ok, I can use it in teh rear diff. Deal done I return the oil receptacle to autozone and purchase 3 quarts of Mobile 1 Synthetic S 75w90 Gear Oil. Whatever. Front diff won’t be used much at all, it’s the rear diff and transfer that matter.
At home I move the frankencruiser into the garage so as to work out of the rain. Climb under car to survey and spray powerblaster on the drain and fill plugs. Wow its great having lift on the truck, it’s really comfortable to work on without bothering with any jacks.
Look for socket. Uh oh. What size? I’ve no socket that fits. Socket is needed since drain plugs are recessed.
Again I read IH8Mud and it comes through with an answer. Factory size is apparently 24mm, but there’s strong recommendations to use a 15/16″, which is 0.2mm smaller. Hmm. Interesting. I hit up the local Auto parts store in the unenviable position of needing a single socket. $8 for a 24mm socket, $25 buys me an entire set of hardened black deep impact sockets in standard sizes up to 1″. I already have the metric edition of this set from Performance Tool and they’re the best fitting and most confident sockets I own (though the metric set only goes to 22mm). I go for the $25 full set (Performance Tool SAE Deep Impact 1/2″ Drive: (M590DB)) instead of the overpriced chrome junk, and hope the 15/16″ recommendation is correct.
What you know, 15/16″ is perfect, great tight fit for the soft metal of the plugs. The fill plugs are soft yellow metal, maybe brass and the case is alloy. Very bad if the alloy threads get stripped.
Front Diff:
I change front diff first since I need to reuse the long pointy containers in order to fill the rear diff and transfer. Front diff is milky and overfilled. I don’t know what might cause that. Water contamination? Not really possible to overfill a diff since the fill plug is on the side at the proper level. I’m able to add fluid using the pointy mobile 1 gear oil bottles.
Rear Diff
I carefully pour the Delvac into the mobile 1 containers to fill the rear diff. Again plugs come lose with moderate pressure on a 1 foot ratchet. Rear diff oil is gross! Brown nasty. Also overfilled. More water contamination? I don’t know. Rear diff is easy to add fluids to, only a steel cable that’s slightly in the way.
Nasty brown gear oil from rear diff.
Nasty brown gear oil draining from rear diff.
Nasty rear diff oil coming out of fill hole (overfilled? corrupted with water?)
Transfer case:
I carefully pour my 3 quarts of MT90 into the mobile 1 containers. Transfer fill plug was really snug. Oil Can Henry’s didn’t touch this one. I am unable to gain sufficient force without the ratchet rocking. I’m very careful not to strip the plug. Eventually I set up my floor jack to support the socket, then can reef on handle with both hands. It pops free with just about maximum force.
Training transfer case. Oil was worst of all.
Training transfer case. Oil was worst of all.
Training transfer case. Oil was worst of all.
Training transfer case. Oil was worst of all.
Transfer oil is the worst. Opaque brown and stinky. Transfer fill is out in the open, no issues adding fluid using the pointy bottles.
Summary:
Each of the drain plugs had a magnet inset into it so part of each job was cleaning out the small metal flakes. Fortunately I found nothing big. Also a good idea to feel around inside the drain plug with your finger in case a bolt is lying there. Happily this found nothing.
For each of the plugs I used torque wrench and gave 27-28 foot pounds of force. Didn’t replace gaskets, we’ll see how that goes.
That was three hours under the car changing the fluids. Its dark and cold. Cajole and threaten the family out into the car and out for a victory lap. Hmm! Vehicle likes it. Much smoother and quieter. Put into low and coasted down a steep hill. Wow. Sounds great. No whining from transmission or from the children beside me in the bench seat.
http://forum.ih8mud.com/60-series-wagons/50283-service-specifications-lubricants-land-cruiser-fj-bj-hj-60-70-series.html
- H55F Transmission: Redline MT90 75w90 Gear Oil, 4.9 liters.
- Transfer case: Redline MT90 75w90 Gear Oil, 2.2 liters.
- Front Diff: GL5 Gear oil, 75w90, 3 liters (I couldn’t get enough Delvac so used mobile 1 synthetic 75w90)
- Rear diff: GL5 Gear oil, 75w90, 2.5 liters. (Delvac 75w90)
For filling oil: on my truck with 2″ lift it was all done using the pointy gear oil bottles, I didn’t spill a drop.
Other stuff you need:
- a GOOD tight strong 15/16″ socket.
- socket wrench (mine’s a foot long and worked fine except for transfer fill)
- Something to support the socket if it doesn’t want to move (like a floor jack)
- Tighten each plug to 27 foot pounds (that’s not much!)
- Drive a little, then check that fluids are still full (in case there’s a burp).
Things to do better next time:
I was hoping I’d finally have an excuse to buy an electric impact wrench, but everything came apart too easily, next time… next time…
CanadianBJ 