What were they thinking?

[CAR]

We took Dad's mk1 Cecil up to Yorkshire Triumphs for some paintwork on the driver's door.
There was a Stag on the lift and Ade was stripping the back end ready to remove the diff for new seals (the second Stag he has done this job on this week).
After removing the exhaust rear sections and halfshafts he then undid the prop to diff bolts. He then had to seperate the flanges by jarring with a hammer. Somebody had used a sealant (like Hylomar or suchlike) between the flanges hence the need to tap with a hammer. When they came apart some fluid dropped on the floor, it was red!
Somebody, for some reason had filled the diff with ATF. Why?
So apart from the seals being past it the quill shaft bearing was very secondhand and both output shaft bearings were just as bad.
We left then with nobody really sure why this had been done, or what they would find when they took the backplate off.
My guess Would be a ruined CW&P.

So what weird and wonderful things have you seen on cars that really made you wonder why?

Colin.

[tony]

Don't know about diffs but a few years ago I worked for a long distance coach company with a fleet of Mercedes coaches. He ran ATF in all the manual gearboxes and did many hundreds of 1000's of km's with no problems. He was very switched on mechanically but can't remember his response when I questioned him on this.
Tony.

[BillTwoTriumphs]

Completely agree it's a stupid thing to do but it would appear it's not an isolated incident - Google "ATF in differential"

Probably suggested as a good idea by someone who'd heard it from a mate who'd heard it from his mate who'd heard it from...

Not that unusual for ATF to be spec'd for manual gearboxes (e.g. Land Rover spec it for the LT77) but I'd never put in a diff that's spec'd for EP oil.

[Bugsy27]

Here in New Zealand we get a lot of high mileage Subaru flat4 and Mitsubishi V6 engines that get very noisy in the hydraulic lifters. Its very common and highly effective to drain the engine oil and refill the motor with ATF, start and let the motor idle away for 30-60 mins and drain. Sorts the lifters out perfectly.

[Dave B]

Back in the 70's a lad from work decided to do a cheap oil change, using 'borrowed' HD30 (detergent engine oil intended for use in our diesel engined plant equipment), in his old Morris Oxford.
I think it took about two days for him to rue that decision, when the oil had cleaned out every nook & cranny, and the engine sounded like a bag of nails !

[red2000chris]

i remember a dodgy car dealer in about 1995 who had a maserati bi turbo with a very noisy engine. he got it part ex so he filled the engine with ep90 gear oil sounded a lot quieter. dont know what the new owner made of it tho.

[Clifford Pope]

It's Redline Heavy Shockproof, apparently highly recommended for high mileage rear axles or those needing a heavy-duty oil:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_rO636a7Tk


It's red

[Richard B]

Not that unusual for ATF to be spec'd for manual gearboxes (e.g. Land Rover spec it for the LT77)

IIRC BL had lots of complaints regarding the LT77 gearbox having a heavy gearchange and crunching gears. This was fitted to the TR7, SD1, Range-Rover etc.

The situation was improved when they changed the LT77 spec to ATF, I think it was EP90 originally.



nb. LT77 stands for Leyland Triumph 77mm (thats 77mm between centres of the mainshaft and layshaft). I think the gearbox department was one of the last parts of the original organisation to keep going.

[Jonathan Lewis]

nb. LT77 stands for Leyland Triumph 77mm (thats 77mm between centres of the mainshaft and layshaft).

Leyland Transmission in this context, I think - the Rover-designed four-speeder on the original Range Rover was dubbed LT95, and the stillborn Jaguar 5-speed box (the one originally intended for the V12 engine, not the beefed-up LT77 later used in XJ6s) was going to be LT88. Also the Marina/Dolomite box (LT55), a 'medium duty' five-speed intended for the TR7 and SD2 (LT66), I think another heavy-duty Land-Rover unit designed at Solihull but manufactured by L-R's Spanish subsidiary, and possibly others too

That said, Graham Robson's Triumph history claims that the code LT1, meaning Leyland-Triumph 1, was briefly used as a designation for the Triumph 1300...

I think the gearbox department was one of the last parts of the original organisation to keep going.

Indeed - by the end of the 1970s, I believe pretty well all of BL's rear-drive manual gearboxes for passenger car applications were Triumph-designed or derived.

[Andy Thompson]

I must admit that the pain and filth we had to endure when me and Ken Bryant swapped out a screaming $2 spigot bush from the manual box in my S2 Disco TD5 made me feel that that R380 - related to LT77 box was indeed partly Leyland /ST's fault

http://triumphwestoz.blogspot.com.au/20 ... metal.html