my 61 f250 was in Chucks speed shop in PHX, Az for about 3 months, full engine rebuilt with new heads, values, carb, rockerarms, rings ect ect. . . but my trans is pretty hard to shift, it grinds but will go into gear. Does it need a rebuild? Or just new gear oil? and my steering is very lose, any pointers?? thanks! erik

 

What tranny? What gear?

With the 4spd manual it is often noisy going into 1st and reverse as it is un syncronized. Even with a good clutch. If not you either need a new clutch or to adjust your slave cylinder.

The loose steering is a symptom of one of three things.
1) Your steering box is hashed and needs a rebuild.
2) Your kingpins are shot and need replacing.
3) Your tierods and draglinks are shot and need replacing.

 

__________________________________________________ _______________
The loose steering is a symptom of one or more of three things.
1) Your steering box is hashed and needs a rebuild.
2) Your kingpins are shot and need replacing.
3) Your tierods and draglinks are shot and need replacing.[/quote]

You could try a lighter weight of gear oil in the trans. Drag racers have been using ATF in gear boxes for years and now the latest Manuals use ATF instead of gear oil.

 

I would not use ATF in a old school manual. ATF does not carry and fling in the same way as gearoil. Nor is it capable of the EP protection of a true gear oil.

50W engine oil can be used as a substitute and was actualy recomended by some manufacturers as a cold weather substitiute for gear oil. It is no thinner when cold at -30 but when warmed up it is much thinner reducing windage losses and the like.

On ATF in manuals. When first used in manual transmissions it caused alot of failures due to its inability to lubricate bearings and gears above the fluid level. The cure was 1 of 2 things.
1)Overfill the tranny.
2)Use gear oil.

Later on detroit realised this and installed pumps inside the manuals to help spray the oil and on some applications run it through a cooler to thicken it up.

ATF is kinda worthless as a lube unless you have whatever completely submerged in it.

 

I haven't been in the latest manual trannies but my son's '02 Cobra has no pump in it to my knowledge. It does have friction material on the synchronizers and the trans seems to oil pretty good as there have not been any failures in his cars yet. His previous Cobra was a '97 with over 100,000 miles on it.
The seals are probably more pliable than the old style seals.

 

I am using 50% Royal Purple synthetic (supposed to be GL4 compatible) and 50% 80/90 GL4 dino in my '46 trans and '80 open 8 in. rearend. The objective was to lube, protect, and have less viscosity. Seems to work well.

 

M5OD, gertag, ZF, Pugot, assin, and many other transmissions sufferd repeated failures due to insufficent oiling.

The lube in all theese trannys is ATF.

The T5 in your sons pony never has had the issue as the fill plug is above the bottom of the bearings. Since it is permanatly partialy submurged in oil it does not have the probloms listed. As long as you have the oil in it anyways.

The fix for the trannies I just mentioned is either overfill or use gear oil. I already explained how it works.

 

I have a 4 speed granny so I start it in second now that I have been driven it quite often the gears are shifting easier. It did sit for almost 20 years

 

Try changing the oil?

If you already have I would change it again. If not add a quart of diesel fuel to the oil first and then top off with 80W-90. Drive it for a few hundered miles and then drain and add straight gear oil of your choice.

The diesel is got a mild detergent effect and will disolve alot of the crap inside the bearings and such without severly ruining the lubricity of the oil as it is light oil in itself.

 

You have to remember that all that crap that is sitting in your tranny for all these years might be what is holding it together. If you do the diesel addition to the gear oil you may create more problems.