Thick green tcase lube?

While I was away [in the Army] my 97 XJ 5spd needed to have the tcase adapter seal replaced. No big deal. A friend of mine who owns a 2-bay shop said he'd take care of it for me; he discovers additional leaks from around the case halves (my words not his) and he sends it to the tranny shop down the road. Tranny shop claims that the tcase is also leaking from the case in the same manner, and while I'm away and totally off the grid, they dismantle, "reseal" and reassemble (*not* rebuild) the tranny and tcase. I forget the price but it was some infuriating am't of money.:flamemad::bs:

I get the truck back, slap my former friend, and when I inspected their work, I discover that the tcase is filled with a thick, Ghostbusters-Ectoplasm-green fluid. Not an oil and water mix like you see with contaminated oil sometimes, but a consistent ugly baby-sh** bright green. uke:

What IS this stuff???

And feel free to comment on the above story. :wstupid:

Sounds almost like Kendall engine oil - that's the only viscous green crud I can think of that might get thrown in there. First time I saw Kendall I almost went into shock - it looked like a mix of antifreeze and Knox gelatin!

Even engine oil is going to be too thick for the pump to distribute - you're going to need to drain and flush it out anyhow. Transmission fluid is a 10-viscosity carrier oil, and you need the transfer case lube to be 5-10-viscosity anyhow at all times (engine oil is likely to cause trouble with the pump. Gear oil damned sure will cause trouble with the pump!)

Sounds like you might want to get out your FM on Wall-to-Wall counselling (if you can't find your copy, I may still have mine somewhere...) I think this would call for judicious use of the Jap Slap technique...

I did a fast drain-and-fill with Redline D4 ATF. Some of the snot is still in there; I hope it won't be a problem before I can do a proper drain and fill in the Spring.

I suspected they also used 80W90 GL5 in the tranny. It shifted like stirring a pot o' rocks. I refilled it with Redline MTL and it immediately shifted like new.

Wall-to-wall counseling, indeed. LOL :twak:

You leave a couple of ounces or so in the tcase when you pull the plug - should be plenty diluted with the new stuff you've poured in now.

Yeah, I've driven a lot today since the last post, and it shifts like a Viper now. (Or how I imagine a Viper would shift). :laugh:

The tcase took about 36 ounces or so of new fluid (Redline). How much snot did I leave in there? And you say that was Kendall motor oil??? It was thick, and totally green. What weight and type could that have possibly been? I was a truck mechanic and later I was in the auto parts commercial sales business for years and I've never seen this goop before.

I once heard 5-30 or 10-30 ( I forget ) was acceptable in the tcase and would quiet it down some...

But that's bad eh?

The t-case should hold about 3 pints of fluid.

Run it a short distance and drain and refill both again after one or two quick cycles. Don't wait for spring

5-90 said:

Sounds like you might want to get out your FM on Wall-to-Wall counselling (if you can't find your copy, I may still have mine somewhere...) I think this would call for judicious use of the Jap Slap technique...

Click to expand...

I think the "body slam" might be more appropriate in this case.

They might have added dye to figure out if it was the xfer case leaking or the tranny? ATF and 5W-30 motor oil have somewhat similar viscosities at operating temps, but the 5W motor oil would be fairly thicker when cold.

Brad Penn's oils are also a very dark green, and yea, the first time I started pouring a bottle of it I was a bit startled, but, thats why they call it the Green oil.
Kendall sold out to another comany that started using cheaper oil and the town of Bradley Pennsylvenia began selling their oil (what Kendall used to sell) under their own name.

My AX-15 had GL5 oil in it when I bought it, changed it with redline MTR twice in a month and it shifts very smooth now. I also did two transfer case fluid chanages that month as well because the old stuff came out black.

~Alex