So I'm in the process of replacing the oil in my Getrag. Still trying to find a length of hose around here that will fit in the PTO bolt hole...

Anyway, I was under there and noticed something. There is a large L-shaped fitting at the rear of the transmission on the Driver's side. It rotates freely on top of the bolt holding it to the transmission...it that normal ? What is this, a TPS of some sort ? Wires lead from it up to the motor, and on one end of the fitting, there is what looks like a barbed metal nipple to attach a vacuum line to. But there is no line attached to it.

What is this, and should there be a vacuum line going to it ? Should it rotate freely ?

Here, I'll go look for a bright light to get a halfway decent picture with.

 

the thing in the picture is your VSS(vehical speed senser) and every now and then you should give the greese zerk a little greese

 

I took my shift tower out. Two boots and a snap ring..

 

Oh, so what I thought was for a vacuum line is to fit a grease gun on to ?

This VSS goes to what, the speedometer ? And it's normal for it to rotate freely ?

 

YES

YES

and NO

 

Yeap.. Me too and it doesn't hurt to have some nice new oil thru the top cover and shifter when you put it back on...

 

Thanks, everyone.

 

The VSS should NOT rotate freely. Tighten the nuts until everything is solid. One pump of grease at every oil change is all it needs, if you try to fill it until grease quirts out you are likely to crack the housing.

 

i did mine last night- drive it around first so it drains easier (wannadiesel told me that b/c mine did have 80-90 gear oil in it) then i filled it with 5 quarts of amsoil 5-30 syschromesh mtf- i used one of the lucas oil injectors additive bottles that you put in your fuel tank (it holds a quart) filled it and used that to "squirt" the fluid in through the top bolt of the left pto cover - it work quite well and i noticed a big difference when downshifting into third!

 

After I filled it as much as I could via the opening on the side, with a large length of hose and a funnel up top, there was the overfill problem to solve.

I wound up putting a four inch length of smaller hose into the top bolt hole, and then fed that into a larger hose. Sealed it by tightly wrapping duct tape around the smaller one until I had to twist it into the opening of the big one. Then, more duct tape around the junction until it was good and airtight. Ran the big one up to the engine and into my funnel like before. This step took forever because of the bolt hole's tiny diameter.

Copper tubing looks like the way to go from what I've read on DTR here, but I just wanted to get it over with.

I'll have to get at it again later in the summer. The old oil was really, really filthy, almost opaque...I wonder how much metal is in it from the gears, you know ? There was slightly less than four quarts in there, now there is like 5 2/3 quarts. I used a synthetic blend, as I intend to dump it again in a few thousand miles and replace it with fully synthetic once the remaining filth is out.

That is, if the tranny isn't on the way out. Who knows how long it had been since the previous owner changed it. It shifts nice and smoothly, but fourth groans like hell when I run out of legs in third around 35-40mph. Fourth gear is perfectly happy above 40 mph, it's just the few seconds of transition where it complains. For all I know the extra (and fresh) oil may help with this.

Sure hope I don't have to learn how to pull a Getrag out this summer. This truck has been one part breaking after another, just relentlessly.

 

Getrag's not a big deal to R&R, it's just heavy and awkward. Just like any truck trans. Don't let it intimidate you. I wouldn't recommend tryin' to bench-press it(which I did try when I was young and stupid) but a 500# capacity trans jack will do the job.

Many have bad-mouthed the Getrag 360 trans; mine was a dern good gearbox until I made the stupid mistake of bump-starting in reverse(and yes, it will start; I seldom had to crank it more than half a turn before she was lit...I wish my 06 started that easily!) which eventually blew the whole left side out of the case( less likely with the New Style case, which has two vertical ribs from the reverse idler hickey to the top rail). So much for starting in Stealth Mode.

 

I have more confidence in a Getrag G360 than any NV--five- or six-speed.

I see old half-a-million-mile abused neglected Getrags, with maybe two quarts of old watery "mystery-fluid" in them, still hauling big loads down the road.

I also see numerous NVs in the cowboy trucks that are all to pieces.



To make any truck-type transmission last, you have GOT to drive them LIKE A TRUCK, not a Mustang.

 

This was much simpler......

 

One more minor detail that will make things almost perfect (and I can't take credit for the idea as I was shown it on the silver/gray truck with the slide-in camper that was parked under the shade-tree at the 2007 Flemingsburg, KY picnic---never did quite know just which one of us it was):

Replace that up-right section with a TEE.

Put a 1/2" barb in the TEE.

Route a length of 1/2-ID clear-braided hose up past the fire-wall and terminate it at a bracket behind the wind-shield washer jug, another barb/coupler/plug.

Now you can stick a sharp-snouted funnel in the top end of the hose, pour in the five-quarts of good stuff, replace the plug, and you're done.

I did this on the son's truck and it works so well that the others are getting it as soon as I get time/motivation.

The hose need not be clear; it just looks cool.

 

If you do the hose thing, why do you need a tee? Does anybody think that with that much pipe hanging out there, it might fatigue and crack/break one of the lower fittings? A bracket off of one of the pto cover bolts might be nice?