Morris Minor Owners Club

Sunday morning .. Sun is shineing .. If I was sane I'd be taking the kids out in my prestine 1955 Minor Convertable ...

Sadly .. My prestine convertible is a rather shabby 1969 2 door Saloon (with a new MOT, Non stop bum waggling on that one! first time EVER I did it first time, Serious and HONEST preMOT inspection works for me!) and I am doing some servicing. Loads of engine oil/filters ,air filter etc etc.

Assumed the gearbox would be EP90 .. CLANG .. it's SAE30 Except that in the book it says "The same grade as the engine" does that mean I can put this 20-50 "Classic" multigrade in there ?

yes mate ,engine oil, some people have had problems with getting oil in ,also with stopping filler plug dropping out of socket, i bought an oil suction pump £7 from m.mart, suck it up from the gallon container ,pump it in ,as soon as u stop pumping the suction/vacuum keeps it in the gun,brilliant,the plug i put some sticky tape round it /socket,no mess all done in 10 mins,steve

Justin,

I'm using 15W/40 in the gearbox. The filler plug is removed with a socket and extension - it then falls under the car...

I use the "low tech" filling method - a cheap plastic funnel (local Woolies for about 50p), short length of hose (fits over the funnel and inside the filler.

Clean up, and I found it easier to scre the filler in by hand from underneath the gearbox (no, you can't see what you're doing).

Colin

p.s. check your manual for the correct gearbox oil! I've just remembered that some of the older gearboxes do take EP90! Mines a 1098cc - which uses enginemoil.

ColinP, do you also use that oil in your engine? Isn't that stuff far too thin?

When I got my Minor at first, and was VERY green, I went looking for SAE 30 oil for the engine/box. The guy in the shop gave me a puzzled look, and said "What do you want it for, it's only used in lawn mowers!"

I went looking for SAE 30 oil for the engine/box. The guy in the shop gave me a puzzled look, and said "What do you want it for, it's only used in lawn mowers!"

Well the guy in the shop certainly got it right that time - you don't use a lawnmover in the UK when it is minus 10 degrees or 100 degrees under the bonnet, so a monograde will be ok.
For an engine you need an oil that can cope with extremes of temperature which is why multigrades were developed (a monograde will be too thick at cold temperature and too thin when hot).

A good 20/50 is the best option, but 15/40 can be used as an alternative (but it is a little more thin than 20/50). Don't use cheap supermarket 20/50 as this is barely any better than the old oil you got rid of - make shure it has all the API and SAE ratings on the container.

Onne

There was a thread some time ago about oils and viscosity. Since then. I've been quite happy to use a good quality (Miller - at the moment) 15W/40 in place of a good quality 20W/50.

It seems fine - doesn'nt appear to leak out faster than 20/50.

It doesn't seem to have much difference in the gearbox - but the oil gearbox oil did have a lot of emulsion in it. It's now quite a "nice" change.

Colin

Well I'm glad I asked ! Had a piece of double sided tape standing by and it all went like a dream.

A tip from a friend was to remove the filler FIRST before you drain the Oil because (And lets face it it's obvious but I hadn't thought of it) if the filler is jammed at least you still have oil in the gearbox.

Another tip someone gave me was to fill a milk or coke bottle will exactly the correct ammount of water then mark it off, drain/ dry then fill to the mark with oil and then drop it in. With 1100ml it comes to just below the filler.

Slightly worried about the fact that only a 500ml came out when I drained it .. Might explain that funny noise in third gear ..

The Castrol Classic 20/50 made a noticeable improvement when I put it in the gearbox. I also got a spin-off filter conversion, because I was never too sure about the washers, etc in the original one.

Come on guys! it's simple. Save one of the 'injector' type oil
bottles which are supplied full of rear axle oil(ep90), mark it
'engine oil' and use that to fill up your gearbox, easy!.
NOTE....The early side valve Minors use EP90 in their gearboxes,
Series2 onwards use engine oil.

Thats what I've done Willie Had to stop my trusty assistant the other day when I did the clutch on Phoebe, he was about to pour EP90 in the filler till I pointed out his error I had to show him the service sheet to prove it took 20/50 in the gearbox because he didn't believe me

Lee

Willie wrote:Come on guys! it's simple. Save one of the 'injector' type oil
bottles which are supplied full of rear axle oil(ep90), mark it
'engine oil' and use that to fill up your gearbox, easy!.
NOTE....The early side valve Minors use EP90 in their gearboxes,
Series2 onwards use engine oil.

But then it goes everywhere ! Nothing wrong with it it's just messy ... With the pipe and funnel system you setup the funnel outside the car and feed the dry pipe into the gearbox. Then you pour the oil (it takes time I know but hey I checked the rocker clearances while I was waiting) and when it's full you let the end of the tube drip off and then pull it out. No oil inside the car at all !

Oh and of course if you warm the oil first it does not take so long

Well, I've been using the injector bottles for over 30 years and
I haven't spilled any yet!

Willie wrote:Well, I've been using the injector bottles for over 30 years and
I haven't spilled any yet!

Well you're just not as kak handed as me

I just use a funnel, inside the car, and a measuring jug, which I nicked out of the kitchen, so I can put the right amount in..... not a pint too much

Ray -what 'ratings' do you look for on the 20w/50 oil ?

Would normally look for an API Sx (x varies depending on which oil you want) and prefferably also an ACAEA rating too. The cheap nasty oils are unlikely to have these qualification ratings.

Standard ratings seem to start with a C - so don't understand your ratings. Duckams Diesel oil for example is rated CD - and the 20w50 oil I use from ASDA is rated CC - which is fine. And it's only £2.74 for 4.5 litres !!

Standard ratings seem to start with a C

I certainly wouldn't consider using an oil in my minor that didn't have an API rating, but it's up to you which you want to use in yours. The stuff from Bull Motif is ~£3 and does have worthwhile ratings.

I would expect that the duckhams oil has more ratings than just CD, but never having looked at Diesel oils, that is just a guess.

the 20w50 oil I use from ASDA is rated CC - which is fine. And it's only £2.74 for 4.5 litres !!

That sounds like the re-cycled mineral oil. It should not have much in the way of ratings on it because it's such a poor quality oil. It breaks down really quickly and loses pressure very rapidly. Nasty stuff.

The oil I use has the following ratings: SAE 15W-40 ACEA A3/B3 API SL VW 505.00