Tuesday 2 May 2017

Minor MGB gearbox oil crisis





One day we noticed a new sound from the Morris gearbox. Sometimes there was a whining sound in third gear. 
About time to check the oil in the gearbox then. This really should be a routine check at service, but I had forgotten this for a while. This is the filling plug that also functions as an inspection hole. 


After undoing the plug I used my magnetic tool to extract the plug as my fingers couldn't grab the plug through the hole.

To add the oil I used the old oilcan with a short length of hose attached. This way I could pump the oil into the gearbox without making a mess. After refitting the plug and carpets a good test run showed that the noise had gone. 
While I still had plenty of oil on me I decided I might as well check the gearbox oil in the Blue MG. The overdrive was very slow to engage.

This car doesn't have an inspection hole you can access from inside the car. It's all underneath, so I forgot to take photos. I needed some more oil here, so I used this nice plungertool to add the oil. Both cars use engine oil in their gearboxes. I used 20/50. After all this messy business the overdrive worked very well. So from now I'll check the gearbox oil regularly.