t35 gearbox oil

[flea]

any body know how much oil should a 1947 t35 gear box take and best modern oil for the tropics ... thanks flea

[EW-Ron]

What does the Owners Manual say ?
Always a good starting point.

Tropics shouldn't make any difference.
Change the oil(s) more frequently - if you habitually ride through thunderstorms !!

Relube ALL the lubing points also if this the case 
And wipe down/polish/oil all the paintwork and chrome to remove any lingering effects of salt spray .......
hth

[eddie]

According to the handbook, 1¾ pints of SAE50.

Regards, 
            Eddie.

[EW-Ron]

Aha.
Good advice !

The SAE50 tells you that Douglas recommended engine oil in the gearbox then.
Which makes it simple at maintenance time.
(SAE50 engine oil is the same viscosity approx as 90wt gear oil)

While oils have improved over the years, engine oil in gearboxes was very widely used,
for quite some number of years. In such a lightly loaded application, still good advice. ?

One of these hypoid type oils may give some slight benefits - if there is zero chance of
any oils intermingling, or getting near the clutch.
You'd want to have someone saying they tried it, and all was good.
Me not knowing precisely what is in a T35 box ...

My teutonic flat twin uses such an oil.
Maybe it ekes out some extra miles in the wear dept ?

[My 4th bike]

One of these hypoid type oils may give some slight benefits - if there is zero chance of any oils intermingling, or getting near the clutch.

Please be careful when using Hypoid gear oils.
There are additives in these oils that can damage yellow metals in an older style gear box.


Penrite T-90 gear oil. It's a GL1 oil made for older gearboxes and is equivalent to the S.A.E 50 motor oil.
https://penriteoil.com.au/products/transoil-sae-90

Hope this helps.

[EW-Ron]

There are additives in these oils that can damage yellow metals in an older style gear box.

While this note of caution is well deserved, those days are long gone ?

My understanding is that this only applied to some oils, for a wee while.
Apparently the sulphur compounds involved/used could bond with moisture (and heat)
and form sulphuric/ous acids.

If this problem had been widespread, it would have eaten out millions and millions of automotive gearboxes
As it didn't, it seems to have been confined to a few specialist oil makers ???
Rectified as soon as it was recognized - the staining on the brass bits was an early indicator ?