Gearbox and Primary Oils

Hi chili.
Re: Shell Gadinia 40 i.e. Premium quality multifunctional lubricant for medium speed marine diesel engines operating on distillate fuels.
This seems an unusual product for the primary cases of a Norton Commando. Why?
Ta.

ok concours wife or spell check usually catches my letter scrambles. On factory=stock Trixie i use commonly recommended gear and fork lube, shared with tractor and hydraulic lifts - as I only operate her as common old farmer farts - except I always use any-all types of ATF for the triplex chain - which don't leak out with newish rubber seal and never a clutch plate sticker. BUT I also don't stay below 4th gear > unless below 33 mph [19T] 2200ish rpm, as I've seen what that does to the sleeve bushes. Everyone seems concerned about the cog teeth but me. Peel's got Wide Ratio TTI gear box which they say use Redline 70-90 and is fine as needle bearing instead of lube sling out bushes above lube level. When Peel ready to spit on superbikers fat tires I'll put in Dexron for a bit less resistance. Might look into dry friction coating of bushes and shafts to extend their holding clearances using lower gears a lot.

Hi, Branch, Needing,
I get the PENRITE from R.P.M. Auto. 600 Forest Rd., Penshurst.

I use the Gardinia 40 , as it is a single wt oil, I also rarely use it as a flushing oil, and the most important it's Free!
Peter

Goodo chilli. Good a reason as any for a chain bath lube.
Ta.

Hi All,

I've settled on these oils for now, I'll make the trip out to my local Redline Oil supplier next week as I keep hearing good things about their gearbox oils.



From left to right its (probably obviously) engine oil, gearbox oil and primary oil.

I haven't been able to find the suitable Penrite engine oil yet but I'll do more looking over the weekend. After opening the top-up hole in the gearbox I was appalled at the condition of the oil inside, so I'll be doing a full drain and refill ASAP. When changing the oil in the gearbox is it necessary to flush it through once or can it just be drained and refilled?

Thanks again for all the advice, I've been reading it all with great interest and taking notes.

Hi Branch.
Oil drains better when warm i.e. after being ridden. Perhaps strain the gearbox oil through stocking or gauge to look for particles. Steel (magnetic) is teeth and bearing wear and bronze is bushing wear. Hopefully there is none.
Ta.

I always thought that using ATF in the primary, as opposed to "oil" was to be able to help identify the source of any leak.

I'm using Penrite MC4ST HD50 SAE50 Premium Mineral (to give it t's full title- A$42 from Autobarn) on the recommendation of my guru. I don't know anything that would permit me to enter into the perennial 'which oil is best' debate, but the argument for a monograde oil makes sense to me for the conditions in Melbourne. If it's too cold or hot the toy stays in the shed anyway!

Diver3284 said:

I always thought that using ATF in the primary, as opposed to "oil" was to be able to help identify the source of any leak.

I'm using Penrite MC4ST HD50 SAE50 Premium Mineral (to give it t's full title- A$42 from Autobarn) on the recommendation of my guru. I don't know anything that would permit me to enter into the perennial 'which oil is best' debate, but the argument for a monograde oil makes sense to me for the conditions in Melbourne. If it's too cold or hot the toy stays in the shed anyway!

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Type F tranny oil was used in the early Ford trannies, they had clutch plates inside and the F type oil was used so the plates didn't slip, so we use it in our primary to stop the Norton clutch plates from slipping, when the Nortons were built the factor just used nomal engine oil GTX at the time I think, my clutch use to slip when using engine oil and over the years used lighter oil to stop the clutch from slipping with some sucess, but since running the F type tranny oil I have had no problems at all with slipping clutch and I still am using my orginal bronze plates after 40 years of riding, but the tranny oil is also good to see if the primary is leaking, just don't over tighten the centre nut on the primary case.

Ashley