Thread: Auto Tran fluid in manual box

In the early 90s LR did not have a suitable oil to go into their gearboxes - so ATF was used - my 94my Interim Lt77 and my 95myR380 both had ATF from the factory.

Was great viscosity wise but not so good for lubrication but worked - the 5 speed Holden Getrags had ATF.

In 94 Caltex developed MTF94 which was the first modern manual transmission fluid suitable for the new gearboxes - LR specified the new oil within a couple of years.

Currently Castrol Syntrans (NOT SYNTRAX) is the pick for the old boxes that originally had ATF.

You will get differing views of course.

Garry

Thanks Garry,

Seems to fit with what I had heard but wasn't sure. I know Syntrans we use it in 1 of our trawlers.

It wont be getting ATF back in it so see how it goes with a different brew.

Cheers Ean

The gear change in my R380 was great with ATF even down here in the cold. I later changed to an unknown (well cannot remember) oil and it was terrible from 1st to 2nd on cold mornings - at that time Syntrans was not freely available and you could only get it at Castrol Depots but thankfully we had one in Queanbeyan.

Improved gearchange when cold - not as good as ATF but acceptable but provided good lubrication. Worked well in our cold winters and well in our hot summers

What box you got? R380 or LT77 - I am sure it works well in both. Different oil for the transfer case though.

Garry

Originally Posted by garrycol

The gear change in my R380 was great with ATF even down here in the cold. I later changed to an unknown (well cannot remember) oil and it was terrible from 1st to 2nd on cold mornings - at that time Syntrans was not freely available and you could only get it at Castrol Depots but thankfully we had one in Queanbeyan.

Improved gearchange when cold - not as good as ATF but acceptable but provided good lubrication. Worked well in our cold winters and well in our hot summers

What box you got? R380 or LT77 - I am sure it works well in both. Different oil for the transfer case though.

Garry

LT77 at the moment. I don't think its going to need to worry about cold mornings so I think it should be ok. Well anything under 20 is getting cold so it might suffer on a hand full of mornings a year.

Cheers Ean

I imported a reco Defender LT77 from Ashcroft . It came with a note to use ATF so thats what I use. They must know as they do lots of them.

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.

Ean, i also find that not every lt77 or r380 shift the same when cold, sone were rubbish even when relatively new... we use the penrite progear 75w90, in most cases it is perfectly fine but you get the idd trans that won't be improved by much, mostly a mechanical issue rather than quality of oil at that point in its life... atf will be ok in cold weather, but wouldn't be working it really hard. Like Rick says there are soooo many options that are better nowadays.

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.

Thanks Rick,

Think it should be safe, don't see the Rangie clocking up 20,000ks for a very long time. I think it will be a case of changing the oil due to it being to long in time rather than Kms.

I took JC's advice and put Penrite in it and we will see how it goes. If that don't seem to suit , I have a few Castrol oils at work around the same viscosity so can always give them a lash.

Cheers Ean