[BigRay]

Hi all,

I recently got my little beast back on the road with a reco engine and gearbox after nearly 12 months of the car being off the road. But with the happiness comes headaches. The gearbox crunches when shifting from 1st to 2nd and sometimes 3rd but doesn't crunch when downshifting. Even though the gears crunch they still pop in very quickly (95% of the time). Sometimes the gears don't crunch but the gear can take a while to pop in. It's really strange. After driving 30km (the first 30km since the rebuild) I decided to change the oil. The oil came out a greyish black colour with a little mountain of sludgy oil on the drain plug (has a magnet). The oil used to be a nice honey colour. What would make fresh gear oil turn nearly black after 30km? The only thing i can think of is that whatever grease may have been used during assembly may have coloured it. I have assembly grease that is the same colour that the oil came out. If this is the case it makes me wonder if the grease (if any) that has mixed with the oil and is making the oil too slippery for the sychros. I refilled with Nulon Smooth Shift SAE 80 GL-4 manual gearbox and transaxle oil. I know Suzuki does not recommend a monograde oil but it was worth a try as it's "Smooth Shift". The shifting has improved with the new oil and I've also been trying to shift differently. I was wondering if there is any way to flush the gearbox out, maybe fill it with diesel fuel and let the engine idle with the gearbox in neutral so everything is spinning in a non-load situation then drain and refill with fresh oil? Also, the manual says my gearbox holds 1.1L of oil, I can fit around 1.7L before the oil meets the filler hole. Am I overfilling it? Which brings me to my next issue. It has developed a leak from the rear seal. Could overfilling be causing my problems? The mating surface on the propshaft is spotless so I don't think thats an issue. I'm planning on extending the gearbox breather incase the stock one is causing restriction too. Any ideas?

Thanks,
Ray

[atari4x4]

i would have gone with suzuki's recommended oil & added nulon N70 & yes overfilling can be as bad as underfilling.

[BigRay]

Yeah i was thinking that, I have the option of 75W-85, 80W-90 and 75W-90 and I figured 80 is in the middle of the recommendations plus the 80 can replace 80W-90 according to Nulon. Am I wrong in thinking that filling my gearbox is the same as the diffs (filling it until it dribbles out the filler hole)?

Ray