Gary Lewis Posted October 5, 2017 Author Share Posted October 5, 2017 Gary, this is turning into a great web resource that all truck owners need! And absolutely yes the supporting info on viscosity is a really good idea. I had a very poor understanding of this until doing some research on ZF fluids. I read my brains out and what seemed like the "best practice" for diesel SMF conversions was synthetic 50wt ATF for big rigs. Jan and I each bought a gallon at $90 each. It worked okay at first in Jan's truck, but soon he started to have problems with noise and poor shifting so he drained it out. Evidently the ZF is a common transmission over there in other housing versions, so he used the European ZF fluid available there and was much happier. So there you have it... $180 mistake following internet advice on how to get rid of rollover noise! Jim - Are you up for writing the technical part, meaning the discussion of viscosity and whatever else? Jonathan - Experiences like yours is one of the reasons I want to create this resource. Fortunately Jim put me onto Royal Purple for the ZF or I would have probably had a similar experience. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArdWrknTrk Posted October 5, 2017 Share Posted October 5, 2017 Jim - Are you up for writing the technical part, meaning the discussion of viscosity and whatever else? Jonathan - Experiences like yours is one of the reasons I want to create this resource. Fortunately Jim put me onto Royal Purple for the ZF or I would have probably had a similar experience. Aren't YOU the one who worked for Conoco???? I'm not a lubrication chemist, but I could give it a shot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ford F834 Posted October 5, 2017 Share Posted October 5, 2017 Jonathan - Experiences like yours is one of the reasons I want to create this resource. Fortunately Jim put me onto Royal Purple for the ZF or I would have probably had a similar experience. Gary, in my internet reading I found several first hand reports of users claiming that Royal Purple made their ZF's shift like total 💩. After all my reading that was my take-away... to try anything except RP. Maybe it is different for diesel owners converting to SMF, but I thought that was just a noise issue, not how it shifts. If you had good luck with RP I will keep that in mind.  Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArdWrknTrk Posted October 5, 2017 Share Posted October 5, 2017 Jonathan - Experiences like yours is one of the reasons I want to create this resource. Fortunately Jim put me onto Royal Purple for the ZF or I would have probably had a similar experience. Gary, in my internet reading I found several first hand reports of users claiming that Royal Purple made their ZF's shift like total 💩. After all my reading that was my take-away... to try anything except RP. Maybe it is different for diesel owners converting to SMF, but I thought that was just a noise issue, not how it shifts. If you had good luck with RP I will keep that in mind. RP Synchromax worked great in my Zf-5. People who bitch about rollover noise should just overfill their gearbox through the shifter with 80w GL4. Noise isn't hurting anything. Put some pressure on the clutch while stopped if it bothers you that much. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ford F834 Posted October 5, 2017 Share Posted October 5, 2017 RP Synchromax worked great in my Zf-5. People who bitch about rollover noise should just overfill their gearbox through the shifter with 80w GL4. Noise isn't hurting anything. Put some pressure on the clutch while stopped if it bothers you that much. I've heard some videos of SMF swapped diesel ZF's that got REALLY loud after getting rid of the dual mass. Yes, they were probably worn, but not done by any means... yet the noise was ridiculous, about like a rock crusher under the truck. I get it, it's a truck, and a rattly diesel one at that, but I would never put up with that. Is it really advisable to over fill a ZF? Seems like if the input shaft seal got tired you would have oil gushing all over your clutch in an instant. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Lewis Posted October 5, 2017 Author Share Posted October 5, 2017 RP Synchromax worked great in my Zf-5. People who bitch about rollover noise should just overfill their gearbox through the shifter with 80w GL4. Noise isn't hurting anything. Put some pressure on the clutch while stopped if it bothers you that much. I've heard some videos of SMF swapped diesel ZF's that got REALLY loud after getting rid of the dual mass. Yes, they were probably worn, but not done by any means... yet the noise was ridiculous, about like a rock crusher under the truck. I get it, it's a truck, and a rattly diesel one at that, but I would never put up with that. Is it really advisable to over fill a ZF? Seems like if the input shaft seal got tired you would have oil gushing all over your clutch in an instant. Jim - I worked for Conoco, but in Information Technology. So, please take a shot at it. Jonathan - RP Synchromax worked well in mine. As for overfilling, I think the main seal is already getting lubed such that a failure will cause oil to go everywhere, and more oil is just a bit bigger mess. But it appears that lots of people have done it with no ill effects. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Lewis Posted October 5, 2017 Author Share Posted October 5, 2017 Jim - I worked for Conoco, but in Information Technology. So, please take a shot at it. Jonathan - RP Synchromax worked well in mine. As for overfilling, I think the main seal is already getting lubed such that a failure will cause oil to go everywhere, and more oil is just a bit bigger mess. But it appears that lots of people have done it with no ill effects. Jonathan - I got the 1989 manual in the mail today. Hope to get the lubrication tables from it and the 1976 manual scanned tomorrow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ford F834 Posted October 6, 2017 Share Posted October 6, 2017 Jonathan - I got the 1989 manual in the mail today. Hope to get the lubrication tables from it and the 1976 manual scanned tomorrow. Kind of sad that the eBay one showed up before mine, but such is the busy life 😂 So do we have everything covered? All of the driveline components found in 80-86 plus popular upgrades? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Lewis Posted October 6, 2017 Author Share Posted October 6, 2017 Jonathan - I got the 1989 manual in the mail today. Hope to get the lubrication tables from it and the 1976 manual scanned tomorrow. Kind of sad that the eBay one showed up before mine, but such is the busy life 😂 So do we have everything covered? All of the driveline components found in 80-86 plus popular upgrades? I think we have everything covered. I just need to scan the lubrication sections of the two manuals and then figure out how to update the table. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Lewis Posted October 6, 2017 Author Share Posted October 6, 2017 Jonathan - I got the 1989 manual in the mail today. Hope to get the lubrication tables from it and the 1976 manual scanned tomorrow. Kind of sad that the eBay one showed up before mine, but such is the busy life 😂 So do we have everything covered? All of the driveline components found in 80-86 plus popular upgrades? Ok, I got the manuals scanned and uploaded to the Specifications/Lubricant Specifications page. But then I started to modify the table and came to the conclusion that I can't maintain that table. The widget on Weebly is atrocious - for instance there's no way to insert rows in the middle of the table, and I need to insert rows. So, I found a way to insert a spreadsheet onto a Weebly page, and then I converted the 1989 lubrication table to a spreadsheet and loaded it up on the Lubrication page. But, I have two problems. First, the spreadsheet doesn't show up on my iPad, but it does on my iPhone and my Windows computers. Second, if I get the iPad showing the spreadsheet then I need to the size of the spreadsheet under control. As you can see, there's a lot more to the spreadsheet than just the data. So, please go see what you see on that page and let me know. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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