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833 4speed gear oil

I was having shifting problems before I rebuilt it and changed the lube to GL4 made a noticeable difference , that's all I'll ever use now
 
AR67GTX said:
Most of my 4-speed experience is with Muncie's and Toploaders and I've just recently acquired an 833 in a car - but I'm always amazed at reports of running motor oil in one of these old 4-speeds. It takes a lot of effort and care to re-seal one of those old transmissions to where it will hold in 85-90 gear oil. Motor oil in an old aluminum Muncie with a worn countershaft bore would probably be nearly dry of oil in a day or two. And my Toploader I've rebuilt/resealed a couple of times and it still has an occasional drip. I guess if you can get an 833 sealed up good and tight then go for it.

Another vote for GL4 Sta-Lube from NAPA.
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My 833 has about 105,000 miles on it and has never been opened and was certainly never treated with respect. Running the engine oil I have a light front seal weep that I have to fix this Winter (or at least that's what I'm praying it is and not a rear engine seal). That said 20W50 motor oil.. if it was straight weight that's a 100 weight oil when hot. Transmission has never shifted as smooth as it does now while using engine oil..
 
There you go, at temperature motor oil is real close to gear oil in viscosity, lubriplate has a chart if you want to check it out. I always used 10-40 or Syncromesh. The leak is usually the countershaft pin, I just tap the pin back, clean everything with carb cleaner, dry with a heat gun, and great stuff it. A-833 will always seep a little, without a little sealer there.

.
 
Engine oil doesn't have the shear protection like gear lube.

And there are now GL-5 synthetics for manual transmissions.
 
GL-4 goes in transmissions, GL-5 is for rear axles. The shear additives in GL-5 can eat the brass syncro rings. Synthetic has never worked well for me in an a-833.
 
I worked for a Delivery company for 25 years maintaining their fleet. In the mid '90's The Upper management decided to be more environmentally friendly we should start using synthetic gear lube in our our newly rebuilt Muncie and New Process four speed transmissions. Right off the bat we began having problems, The transmissions would not shift without grinding, UNLESS you shifted very slow,,,. Now what delivery driver is going to shift slow? Within a couple of weeks the synchros were destroyed. The problem was that the old bronze synchros need a certain amount of friction to get the gear spinning and the Synthetic lube was too slick to get them up to speed. A trans would last about a month. We talked extensively about this to upper management but "they" knew better and would not listen. Every shop was sent a barrel of Syn gear oil to use and when a shop audit was done they better NOT find any regular gear oil! Soooo, when we would order a trans (we had a local trans shop rebuild all of our transmissions) The shop would send a couple of jugs of regular 80-90 that we used and then ditched the empty jugs in the dumpster....Ed
 
4406bbl said:
GL-4 goes in transmissions, GL-5 is for rear axles. The shear additives in GL-5 can eat the brass syncro rings. Synthetic has never worked well for me in an a-833.
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Not any more. As I said there are now GL-5 gear oils for transmissions.
 
Longknife said:
I worked for a Delivery company for 25 years maintaining their fleet. In the mid '90's The Upper management decided to be more environmentally friendly we should start using synthetic gear lube in our our newly rebuilt Muncie and New Process four speed transmissions. Right off the bat we began having problems, The transmissions would not shift without grinding, UNLESS you shifted very slow,,,. Now what delivery driver is going to shift slow? Within a couple of weeks the synchros were destroyed. The problem was that the old bronze synchros need a certain amount of friction to get the gear spinning and the Synthetic lube was too slick to get them up to speed. A trans would last about a month. We talked extensively about this to upper management but "they" knew better and would not listen. Every shop was sent a barrel of Syn gear oil to use and when a shop audit was done they better NOT find any regular gear oil! Soooo, when we would order a trans (we had a local trans shop rebuild all of our transmissions) The shop would send a couple of jugs of regular 80-90 that we used and then ditched the empty jugs in the dumpster....Ed
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Wow, funny how upper management 'knows' what the mechanics should be doing!
 
hell, I could run olive oil in my trans after I rebuilt it and swear to all of you it's great and eco friendly too ,but that's not going to be very good in the long run , synthetic is great for the newer stuff but its designed different and I can see using motor oil if it's so cold you have to drive a mile to get it to shift out of first gear ,but the fact is they engineered this stuff for what they had then and they lasted and functioned great
 
Nevada dan said:
hell, I could run olive oil in my trans after I rebuilt it and swear to all of you it's great and eco friendly too ,but that's not going to be very good in the long run , synthetic is great for the newer stuff but its designed different and I can see using motor oil if it's so cold you have to drive a mile to get it to shift out of first gear ,but the fact is they engineered this stuff for what they had then and they lasted and functioned great
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Again, there are now synthetic GL-5 gear oils designed for manual transmissions that work with the synchros. Modern chemistry is great!
And olive oil is used in Italian vehicles along with yak fat.
 
Royal Purple. In fact, IIRC they have an oil just for the 833.
It may not be synthetic.
 
D18B48CF-9C75-4DD5-A7D6-017DA8F367A4.png
thought I would ask someone that would know
 
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IIRC back in the late 70's they started running ATF in the manual transmissions. I was servicing new vehicles at a Dodge dealership and checking one one day I found red fluid in a three speed van and had to research what was going on. Yep, ATF.
 
khryslerkid said:
IIRC back in the late 70's they started running ATF in the manual transmissions. I was servicing new vehicles at a Dodge dealership and checking one one day I found red fluid in a three speed van and had to research what was going on. Yep, ATF.
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Yep, ATF in both my '85 GLH Turbo critter as well as my '89 5.0 Mustang, both bought new.
Blew my mind when I found out - oh, and the transaxle in the Shelby failed short of 50k miles.
 
I will pass on 75-140 and stick to motor oil, syncromesh, or the gl-4. What little I know about an a-833 is thick oil does not work well because the brass rings do not have relief grooves to let it squeeze out, you can buy rings that have them, but some have said they break with spirited driving. It sounds like the 75-140 would be good in a worn out trans for sure. Have you or has anyone used this product in a 1970 and up trans with the newer style syncros? I get noise complaints from people that get their first hemi 4-speed, they want a rebuild, I tell them save your money the gears are cut different, it is just the way they are in 1-2-3. Nobody said royal purple does not know oil, but they kind of admit this product is a bandaid for the A-833, which is respectable on their part. Thanks for the info.
 
I use shockproof in my mercruiser outdrive. It’s a performance application.
When I first used it, I was sure something was amiss with the gallon I got. It is like a whipped milkshake.

I use regular gear lube in my 4 speed. Lucas, if I recall. It shifts fine.


Slap Stick said:
I guess Royal Purple doesn't know anything about oil.
Their Max Gear oil has the performance of a GL-5 without being corrosive to ferrous and non ferrous metals.

Here's one from Red Line.
https://www.redlineoil.com/75w90-ns-gl-5-gear-oil

Here's one made for the A883. Notice it is a GL-5.
https://www.redlineoil.com/75w140-ns-gl-5-gear-oil

I use their "strawberry milk shake" aka Shock proof heavy gear lube in my moorsickle transmissions.
Click to expand...
 
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