john deere A, transmission fluid.

jdeere830

Member
Hey all, so I have a late shoes John deere A, I am wanting to change the transmission fluid and I don't know what to put in, the book says use 140 weight, but everything I see is GL-5, and i have heard not to use that. What do you guys recommend?
 
At one time we used GL-1 140W in the transmissions of all our "classic" tractors.

Since our supplier no longer stocks GL-1, we use 85-140W in the transmissions.

Hope this helps.
 
Thanks for the quick reply, but where do you get that heavy of a weight of engine oil (I assume that's what your getting)?
 
50 or 60wt engine oil is just fine. It's as thick as 140wt gear oil and is yellow metal friendly. You can find the stuff anywhere.
 
(quoted from post at 14:27:26 10/11/14) You don't use motor oil in the transmission, buy 85/140 it will also help quiet worm gears

kemper you had better tell all those vehicle manufactures that spec engine oil in manual transmission that they are wrong.
Are you aware of the viscosity difference between 90Wt gear oil, 140wt gear oil, 50wt motor oil and 60wt motor oil?
Are you aware of yellow metal susceptibility with GL-5 oil vs motor oil?
Are you aware that motor oil provides better bearing and gear lubrication than GL-1 ?
Show me the transmission worm gear(s) in a "A" .
 
(quoted from post at 17:01:52 10/11/14) So, 60 weight engine oil is comparable to 140weight gear oil?

Here. Took me almost two minutes to google the info and post it .

http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/putting-the-simple-back-into-viscosity/
 
I meant to say "worn" gears, I guess
Buick and deere knows more than the
john deere engineers who recommend
80/90 lube for these old tractors, I
don't care what"Bob the oil guy on
the internet"says, motor oil will
not carry on the gears like
transmission oil will, ive seen the
demonstrations on lubrication,your
top shafts and gears are probably
suffering from very little lube.
 
(quoted from post at 19:25:40 10/11/14) I meant to say "worn" gears, I guess
Buick and deere knows more than the
john deere engineers who recommend
80/90 lube for these old tractors, I
don't care what"Bob the oil guy on
the internet"says, motor oil will
not carry on the gears like
transmission oil will, ive seen the
demonstrations on lubrication,your
top shafts and gears are probably
suffering from very little lube.

So Bob. Where is your certificate of qualification on lube oil? How is it that the same viscosity of motor oil will not carry as much on a gear as the same viscosity of gear oil? How much of that 1/16" thick layer of oil on the gears is left between the gear to gear contact surface be it gear or motor oil? Have you not found any vehicles yet that spec motor oil in a manual transmission? Are there any gears in an engine? Which oil has more high pressure additives, GL-1 or T1 50wt. Oh looky here. Shell even says the stuff is for hydraulics and transmissions. Yup lets believe Bubba instead of Shell's engineers and Shell's legal division.

http://www.shell.com/rotella/products/t1.html
 
Many GL5 fluids are now yellow metal safe. Lots of discussion
out there on this. Offhand, the coastal brand gl5 commonly
found at autozone is now yellow metal safe.
 
Use whatever you want but I've never
seen 50wt motor oil recommended for
a 50 to 60 year old tractor
transmission, you better call john
deere and let them know "bubba"
 
(quoted from post at 19:58:04 10/11/14) Use whatever you want but I've never
seen 50wt motor oil recommended for
a 50 to 60 year old tractor
transmission, you better call john
deere and let them know "bubba"

Explain how 50WT Shell T1 which is between the viscosity of 90WT and 140WT SAE gear lube will protect the gears less than GL-1. Are you aware that lubrication is more than just viscosity? Which oil do you think would be pushed out first from between gears and allow metal to metal contact?
 
We are not talking about a vehicle.

We're talking about a 50 to 60 year
old tractor and the manufacturer
recomended oil is 80/90wt trans oil
but I use 140 in mine as it helps
quiet worn gears
 
I ordered GL1 140wt from my local Car Quest.

No one around here can get the straight 50wt or 60wt motor oil.

A bottle of Lucas oil treatment/stabilizer(crs) would toughen up the GL1 and it's yellow metal friendly. Their Hub Oil isn't.
 
(quoted from post at 09:59:09 10/12/14) I ordered GL1 140wt from my local Car Quest.

No one around here can get the straight 50wt or 60wt motor oil.

A bottle of Lucas oil treatment/stabilizer(crs) would toughen up the GL1 and it's yellow metal friendly. Their Hub Oil isn't.

Local Canadian Tire and local Shell dealer have 50wt sitting on the shelf in 4liter jugs. Amsoil dealer has 60wt in liters, jugs, pails and barrels.
 
Kemper the Deere engineers of 70 yrs ago did not have anything even remotely close to today's far superior oils to work with. So Buick & many others actually DO know far more about lubricants than those engineers did. GL1 is absolute garbage In today's lube world. Zero additives, turns to mud in short order & does not stick well to anything. It's the best there was at that time but now it's at the bottom of the list. Would you still use tube-type bias ply tires with split rims on your classic car? Or modern-design tubeless radials that look cosmetically the same as the originals?
 
Copy and pasted this from an earlier yellow metal safe discussion. Hope it helps.


Below is a series of back and forth emails regarding Coastal 80W90 Gear Lube I purchased in a 5 gallon bucket for $40 at Autozone. I finally was able to get ASTM D130 test information that qualifies it for the MT-1 rating, classified as 1a.

The emails are best read from the bottom up, as they are copied from my email program, and are in reverse order.

ASTM D130

Copper Strip Corrosion Test ASTM D130

The Copper Strip Corrosion Test ASTM D130 is used to evaluate the corrosive tendencies of oils to copper containing materials.

In this test, special three-inch copper strips are cleaned, polished and immersed into a test tube containing the oil being evaluated. The test tube is held in a water bath for three hours at 212ºF (100ºC). At the end of the exposure period, the strip is removed and cleaned. The strips are compared to a specially prepared set of standardized reference strips and rated against these standards on a scale of Class 1 (slight tarnish) to Class 4 (heavy tarnish).

An industrial gear lubricant that exhibits a 1b classification in this test is considered to exhibit good resistance corrosion to yellow metals.

This description from this article.

End of ASTM D130 description


email inclusions below

Tom,

The application information would be fine. Please omit any formula information if you would.

Thanks,

Jim Chancey
Quality Control Lab Manager
Warren Unilube, Inc.
West Memphis, AR
(870)732-7846
[email protected]


From: Tom Norkunas
Sent: Wednesday, June 04, 2008 12:48 PM
To: James P. Chancey
Subject: RE: Coastal 80W80 gear lube

Jim,

Thanks a bunch.

I'd like to post this information to a tractor website that has a number of members interested in this information, but would like your permission to do so, since our discussions have thus far been private.
 
Ok, that's what I will have to go with, I can't find any 60 weight oil around me, but if the coastal brand is safe, I will use that.
 

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