Gearbox Oil Change

[The Veg]

I put the car up on the QuickJack* and use one of these: https://www.harborfreight.com/oil-sucti ... 95468.html

*Or if you don't have a QuickJack or other lift, just raise each end and put the car on stands or put blocks under the wheels or something. But honestly, the QuickJack is worth every penny for how convenient it makes getting under the car.

[Quart Meg Miles]

I reverse onto ramps then jack up the front and put the crossmember on axle stands. Drain the oil, then fill an old plastic oil bottle (which came with full depth internal tube and equal length outlet tube with a right-angle bend at the end) with fresh oil. Hook the end into the hole, squeeeze the bottle hard (a few times) and in goes the oil, either the correct amount or until it flows back out of the hole.

Undoing the worn stoppers used to be my problem until St Wilkins supplied a replacement.

[billwill]

Finally got around to changing the oil in the gearbox & Diff. Now that the engine is functional again I was able to drive onto the car ramps to get underneath.

Just as well that I did it now as there was very little oil in either casing.
Getting the oil in into the gearbox while the car was at an angle ended up not a problem compared to the real difficulty of getting the oil to go uphill. I could only get about half a litre in by squeezing the plastic bottle. After trying various methods (and finding that I could not easily do it from inside as I could not easily get the centre 'armrest' off. I eventually repurposed a brake bleed kit:



Which had never really worked for me for the brakes/clutch as it kept blowing the cap off the reservoirs).

There was no significant spill from the filling/overflow hole in the gearbox at all, when I got a full litre in. (the manual says 0.99 litre capacity).

Doing the diff involved backing onto the ramps, getting the drain plug out is tricky as one of the diff stabalizing rods is in the way; as said above the was very little oil therein. Sometime ago I had cut a hole on the side of the spare-wheel well; though I just have a square of aluminium plate not a fancy 'porthole'. The filler cap it is still a bit tricky to get at as the handbrake rod is in the way, but it's just possible.The filler cap was very tight and I feared stripping its corners; I had to use a socket set and an extension bar to loosen it, but it freed instantly after a tiny amount of 'turn'. Then I found there was no fibre washer on it. Was I really so daft last time ??.

Putting the oil in there (1.13 litres) is not a problem with the bottles being supplied with a pipe spout. I put in around 1,2 litres and it just started overflowing. I put the cap back on with an o-ring as I could not find a fibre-washer of the right size in my odds&ends.

I'm annoyed with myself that on driving forward off the car ramps I scratched the underside of the back where it touched the ramp; I had forgotten to remove the two bricks i had placed as safety chocks in front of the front wheels of the car!

But all is now done.. Hooray.