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MG TD TF 1500 - gearbox lubricant

thinking about replacing lubricant in my TFs gearbox. The T manual recomendes sae90 hypoid gear oil as used in the rear end. recall seeing on another thread someone recomending using motor oil. such as castrol 20w50. any thoughts on wich is preferable?
jeff payne

I was just asking the same thing not too long ago......

http://www2.mgcars.org.uk/cgi-bin/gen5?runprog=mgbbs&mode=thread&access=&subject=8&source=T&thread=2007090623274331001

HTH!
Rob Edwards

Jeff - I would stick with the 90W recomended in the manual or use Red Line MT90. Leave the 20W50 for the MGBs (which is recomended by the mgb manual. Cheers - Dave
David DuBois

My experience is, DON'T use 20w50 oil because it's worse than no oil at all! Again, this is what I tried and found out. Any 90W oil would do, I use one for tractors and it's fine, no noise.

Denis
1950 TD
Denis L Baggi

Admittedly I am a beginner in the T series world but when I got my first TD a few years ago a 50 year TD owner friend of mine advised me that Synthetic lube in the engine, gearbox, and differential is the way to go. I use 75W-90 Full Synthetic as recommended for the gears and Mobil 1 15-50 Full Synthetic Extended Performance in the engine.
Tranny shifts and sounds very smooth even at startup on cold winter mornings.
Same with the engine plus the tiny oil leaks stopped, probably due to seal swell up. Mobil assured me that ZDDP has not been reduced in Mobil 1 and is fine for EXPAGS.
In Charlie Searles Pole Position letter in the latest TSO he mentioned that the late Dave Raymond, a highly respected T mechanic advised him that "the single kindest thing you can ever do for your TF is to use synthetic oil in the gearbox".
Worth a try.
George 52TD
GF Metz

With gearbox and rear axle oils, it is important to check one aspect of their formulation (or additives), indicated by a GL number on the container somewhere. GL5 grades contain phosphorus and/or sulphur based additives, which attack the phosphor bronze thrust washers in our gearboxes, so such grades are unsuitable. GL3 and GL4 grades contain zinc based additives, which is satisfactory. I am fairly sure that the GL numbers are used in Europe and North America, and probably throughout the world.
Roger Wilson

This thread was discussed between 14/09/2007 and 21/09/2007

MG TD TF 1500 index

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