Farmall H transmission oil like cake batter

Working on restoring a 1940 farmall h. Drained the trans last nite. The oil can out so thick like cake batter. There was very little water in it. What would cause the oil to get that thick, or was there something added to the oil to make it that thick to quiet something down. Don't know anything about the history of this tractor. Going to pull the top cover off the trans and take a look inside to see what it looks like. If anybody could shed some lite on why the oil is so thick please let me know. Thank Dan.

The tractor is 74 years old. We can only guess about what kind of oil might have been added to it over that many years. About the only thing you can do is get all of that stuff out of there, clean it, inspect it, and then refill with the proper 80w-90.

Most had 90wt or 140 wt grease. What is in that H could be 60 years old.

time and never changed may do that but if it had a noise somebody could have dumped in a few cans of something like stp to thicken it up, and quiet it down, not the best idea

just did a Super H like that.
oil folding over on itself and making a mound in the bucket.
took days to drain.
And I got 3 and a half 5 gallon buckets out of it! wow
rear was as quiet as a mouse with it in.
replaced with the right amount of 85-140 and it is still
good, but I can at least hear things moving in there now.

I'd jack both rears off the ground, dump in 5 gal of gasoline and run it for 30 minutes.

Then drain off the gas, let it set overnight to evaporate away and fill 'er with 80-90.

Allan

I would let it sit a few days in the sun with the drain plug out, then dump in about 5 gallons of diesel, drive it around for about an hour, then drain it again.

The secret ingedients are water and time! The original fill on these tractors was not much more than plane old oil. Oxidation, water and evaporation of lighter ends over decades of time creates a jellatinous goop.

With the cover off, get two five gallon buckets, one under the case drain and one under the trans drain. Get five gallons of diesel and a one or two gallon sprayer and start washing everything down. You can filter the diesel through a rag or two and keep using it until things are clean. Also an overnight sit will settle out most of the junk to the bottom of the bucket.

You could get a faster start by putting diesel in before you pull the top and drive around for 10 minutes. That will loosen up the worst of it. Then pull cover and spray.

Well I changed the rear end oil in my 1951 Farmall h a few months ago. I am pretty sure it still had the original stuff from the factory. I thought I would be smart in doing this because it too looked like cake batter.

Refilled it with 90 weight mineral gear oil. Tranny/rear end now makes quite a bit more whining noise compared to what it used to. I wish I would have left the cake batter stuff in there as my stuff was not water contaminated (but it both looked and smelled nasty). Unfortuantely, I had already discarded the cake batter stuff or I would have simply put it back in there had I still had it.

Anyway, if you dead set on changing it then I would go with 85W-140 (in GL1-through GL-4 spec grades) from NAPA or somewhere similar. Most of the GL-5 grades of oil that you will find at all the discount marts can eat brass and bronze bushings in your tranny....so I personally would not risk those....but if you feel lucky risking a ruined tranny in order to save a few dollars then go for it.....

I will eventually change my ole h again when time and money allows. Plan to go with 85W140 (GL1-through GL-4)

It was probably easy to shift!

I did the Diesel sprayer thing with my MH44, worked pretty well.

I did some research on this gear oil thing and even made phone calls to the manufacturers. The sulpherized EP additives are what can attack bronze, brass and copper. That said, they're virtually all chemically buffered so as to not do that. Now in particular, if you can find "MT-1" somewhere on the label then it is definately buffered so as not to attack soft metals. The "MT" stands for manual transmissions and the buffering protects the synchronizer rings.

Now of course an H has no synchronizer rings and in fact the only thing in there to even worry about are the reverse idler bushings and the pto pilot bushing. Everything else is cast iron or steel.

All that said, the real problem with the EP additives in GL4 and GL5 is that they can react with water to form sulphuric acid. So the inevitable condensation that can form in the case of a tractor left outside combined with a modern lube can end up with surface rust on gear teeth and bearing balls, any of the shiny stuff first. If you store the thing inside or use it regualrly it's not so much an issue.

I've looked in some fence row tractors that had the old original goopy lube and find no rust or corrosion. I've looked in some that were use more recently and thus had fluids updated and then sat and I find rust and corrosion.

The safest bet is to use one of the UTF lubes (Hytran, etc) as they are designed to pick up and remove water and use different additives. Of course the trans and rear probably will be more talky talky.

GL5 contains twice as much EP as GL4 but GL4 is hard to find. Some people have been cutting the GL5 with UTF at 50/50. I haven't tried that yet but probably will at some point.

Thank you for all of your comment. I really appreciate the time everyone takes to help out one another. Thanks again

I have cleaned a few with a solvent pump from a parts washer. Put it in a bucket full of diesel or kerosene, run a tube up to the trans, put the bucket under the trans drain. Run the pump 24-7, move the tube every day or so until all is clean.

85/140W Gl-5 from WalMart (Supertech) states on the label that it is safe for brass, bonze etc. It's cheaper than the other GL-5 gear lube available at NAPA. TSC, etc.
GL-1 90W will be a little noisier, as I can testify having put that in my Oliver 60 rowcrop after changing the gunk that was in there.
To flush out the gunk and water - Not sure I'd put gasoline in the differential as the seals may suffer. I've used diesel fuel, but had the best luck with universal tractor fluid (hydraulic oil) as it will absorb water better and provide some degree of lubrication, which gasoline will not. It also won't damage your seals. 2 gallons is sufficient as long you don't work the gears hard.
My 2 cents.... done it to all my vintage stuff with no problems yet. And the 85/140 is definitely quieter... even in Olivers, which are notorious for noisy differentials.