Thread: Auto Tran fluid in manual box

Originally Posted by garrycol

So Ean - you been hitting reverse instead of 1st all the time with your LT77 - a horrible gearbox - I had one in my Interim D1 and when I got a Update D1 with the R380 the new gearbox was like a breath of fresh air.

By all means use you LT77 but if something happens to it - consider putting a R380 in it.

Gday Garry,

I haven't driven it enough to have had that happen, I am just working my way thru the car and doing a full change of all filters and oils. Actually I didn't mind the shift as it was nice and tight so never found that problem. The road trains I have driven have the Reverse in the same spot so I didn't notice any issue but I have only done about 100ks so far.

Long term plan is to find a donor D1 300tdi and put the running gear from into the Rangie, so it will get a R380 box at some stage.

Cheers Ean

Originally Posted by rick130

As Garry said Ean.

The LT77 and R380 can be idiosyncratic but most find a dedicated MTF works better and it will give better gear/bearing protection.
Just be prepared that it may take up to 800km for the new friction modifers to push the old ones off the synchro faces and embed themselves.

I tried lots of different MTF's, if you can't get Syntrans 75W-85 easily Redline MTL works well and Penrite have one suitable.
Hell, everyone makes them these days.
I ended up with Motul Gear 300 in my old R380, I found it gave by far the best gear change without any gear and bearing rattle at high load/high ambients, something I had happen with Syntrans and it gave the best shifting at -5 short of ATF. It has an impressively high VI of 222 so is incredibly thin at sub zero temps.
One thing I found with Syntrans was it needed changing by 20,000km, the R380 is bloody hard on lube. By then the oil had started to shear and shift performance was deteriorating. John/Bush65 had the same experience.

And on this advice after trying the many usual advice here my r380 loves Redline MTL

Thanks to Ricks wealth of knowledge

And yes be prepared if you change brands it does take awhile for the new oil to work it`s way in to the synchros