| Light Pressure Oiling Product review
Gear oil is about as foul a material as is found in cars. I've ruined shoes and pants with it. Changing gear oil is never convenient like it is with engine oil. Filling a tranny is awkward at best, and in the past I've put it off long after I should have.
With a transverse engine installation, there may be a space to hold a bottle upside down and let it drain. On Project 325is, the trans and diff are both close to the floorpan, so there's no room to let gravity work. I needed to make Red Line synthetic run uphill.
I asked around with pros and stores. Everyone had the Sta-Lube hand pump from CRC Industries, an elegant solution designed to screw into the top of a gallon bottle of Sta-Lube oil. But to use it with a 1-qt Red Line bottle, I would have to hold and pump it with two hands, making sure the motion didn't tip the bottle or pull the hose out of the tranny's fill hole. The job would keep two people fully occupied. Then the pump would be full of ATF, requiring a lot of cleaning before using it for the diff.
I went shopping at Home Depot and found the following:
• 1/2-in. o.d., 3/8-in. i.d. tubing
• 1/4-in. o.d., 0.170-in. i.d. tubing
• tube fitting, 0.170-in. barb to 1/4 NPT
• 1/4 NPT ball valve
• 1/4 NPT air fitting
I drilled round, tight-fitting holes for the hoses in the Red Line bottle cap with a Unibit ("Tool of the Month," Jan. 2001) and assembled the valve and fittings. I used several feet of the small tube and enough of the large tube to easily reach from the ground to the fill plug with the car on jack stands. The small tube entered the top of the bottle just far enough to not blow out; the large tube reached the bottom.
Ready to fill the transmission, with the drain pan still in place, the large hose in the fill hole and the valve closed, I connected the valve to compressed air. I cracked the valve open just the slightest bit, and the Red Line ATF flowed up the hose into the tranny. I could judge the speed by the front of the slug of oil. Turning off the air stopped the flow immediately.
I allowed the lube to flow until I saw bubbles indicating the bottle was empty. On the second bottle, when I saw oil dripping out of the tranny fill hole, I turned off the air, pulled out the hose and screwed in the plug. The drain pan caught the drips of excess fluid. There was no mess and almost no effort. The tube was cleaned with a wipe outside and a shot of solvent inside. "Yeah," I thought, "I rock."
There isn't a lot of pressure involved with this technique. The oil should just be flowing smoothly up the tube. Still, better to be cautious. I was confident in the Red Line bottle. If you're uncertain of the strength of the container your preferred oil comes in, or if it has flat sides that will bow under pressure, either don't try this, or you should set the bottle in a drain pan to contain the mess should it fail.
Finally, never get under a car without safety glasses. Any liquid could drip at any time, and it is a certainty that dust and grit will fall. Any of it could ruin your whole day and more if it got in your eyes.