Watery gearbox oil

[Kiwi Kev]

Hi
Can anybody tell me the symptions of watery oil in a gearbox.
Not thinking about the bearings etc, but more along the lines of gear changing ability.
Wether more of a problem when oil heats up, or if it would be a problem regardless of wether oil is cold or warm/hot.
Problem is on my 5000.
Kiwi Kev

[The Swanndri Guy]

Kev,with watery gearbox oil will not only be the result of condensation but the result of our lovely South Pacific rainfall, normally via the gear levers.Shift quality should be the same for all gears, and from my experience they should shift better with a warm gearbox rather than cold.BUT shifting from gear to gear ie H1to H3,will be a different story, as there is only so much you can expect from the 8 speed gearbox, if you dont have the right engine speed, they wont shift well if you get it right it will enguage straight away. TSG.

[Kiwi Kev]

Thanks TSG
I called the topic watery oil, but I'm not even sure if it's watery oil, or too thin an oil.
I plan to replace the oil with gear oil, or even 15w-40 as suggested by the boys at Ruakura tractors.
The problem is'nt getting it in to gear, but rather getting it out of gear. It's fine when the oil is cold, but as it warms up, it gets harder to get it out of gear, hence the question about watery oil, or maybe even wrong oil.

It may even be clutch drag on the gearbox not allowing smooth egrees from the gears.
I have been playing with the adjustment of the clutch, which is'nt easy as the manual only talks about freetravel of the pedal. Have had the foot plate off and adjusted the rod to where it feels right, and then adjusted the foot plate pedal stops with the 5 " cutoff wheel. One of the joys of aquireing a tractor of unknown condition.

If I don't get any words of wisdom from anyone, I will probably just replace the oil when I can afford it, see what that does if anything, and then look at adjustment or stripping out the clutch.
Kiwi Kev

[The Swanndri Guy]

Kev, Ford recomend SAE 20W/30 for the gearbox, 10.2 litres, but I use 20W/40 oil.Clutch pedal freeplay of 32 to 38mm.If that doesnt make a difference to changing gear, then you might be right that the clutch plate might be dragging when the clutch should be disenguaged (either sticking clutch plate or faulty pressure plate.)

[Kiwi Kev]

Spent 1 hour in the shed after work. Split the tractor and removed the clutch.
Just as I thought, clutch plate soaked in oil. Pressure plate and flywheel also covered in oil. No apparent leaking oil visiable in bellhousing. Tractor that this engine came out of (couple of months ago) did have oil pooling in the bottom of bellhousing. Don't know why I did'nt check it out then
Have a spare used pressure plate, clutch plate and flywheel, so will start installing those tonight.
Need to get her back together, so I can get some contract jobs done this weekend.

Obvouisly I need to replace the oily c-plate, but any thoughts/recommendations on cleaning up the P-Plate and flywheel, i.e. waterblasting, degreaser etc

Kiwi Kev

[Bensdexta]

Where is the oil coming from?

[Kiwi Kev]

Tractor all back together last night. Changed flywheel, c-plate and p-plate with used ones I had. New used c-plate was 10mm thick compared to oily used of 6mm, warped and oily. Have'nt driven it yet, as finished her at midnight, so will give her a quick test drive after finishing my coffee.
There were no visiable oil leaks behind the flywheel, or in the bell housing. Can only presume that oil was picked-up when engine was in other tractor.
Kiwi Kev

[Kiwi Kev]

Just drove her out of the shed and up the drive. Feels whole lot better, but will see when she gets warm/hot.
I will probably need to 're-adjust' those foot plate stops
Kiwi Kev

[Kiwi Kev]

Used her today for 6 hours, and clutch was beautiful. She was a pleasure to drive.
Kiwi Kev