gear lube in transaxle

[freshtiva]

I start to put a new clutch in my red 1990L five speed today. When I drain the transaxle fluid it turns out someone had put heavy gear lube in it instead of Mercon. Fuild looked clean( a little foamy) so I assume someone had tried to stop clutch slippage by changing transaxle fuild and replace the Mercon with gear lube. My question is.. do you think this might have damaged transaxle. There was no evidence of seals leaking when I put in new Mercon, drove it until warm, and drained again to flush out gear lube. Any thoughts while I have if apart ?

[ericsmith32]

Are you sure it wasn't the original fluid? It sounds like the fluid I pulled out of my dads and my festiva when I changed them. I think they used gear lube from the factory.

[freshtiva]

It looked pretty clean for original , honey color, had the smell of gear lube, and thick.

[ericsmith32]

Yup sounds like the stock fluid. Every festiva/aspire i've pulled the gear lube out and put Mercon shifting was alot smother. Although the mercon doesn't hold up as long.

[freshtiva]

Well, cool. Wonder why I never noticed it when I changed the fuild in the other festivas :scratch:

[ramichael]

Mine had gear oil in it when i bought it, but i figured they put it in there to make the tranny run quieter, but it was still makeing a noise. Had to replace it.

[freshtiva]

I think the tranny is hosed. Drained the fluid again and it had a lot of metal in it, looks like gunpowder on the bottom of the drain pan. Plus the noise was loudest when the clutch was out and almost stops when the clutch is depressed. Not sure what Im going to do now. The guy I got the car from said turning the car over to his son was what ruined the clutch. So I imagine abuse ruined the tranny. Car only has 115,000 on it so I dont think it wore out.

[freshtiva]

Is an aspire tranny a perfect fit for the festiva?

[roycehof]

If you have no noise with the clutch pushed-in and noise with the clutch pedal out, it is the input shaft bearings.
If you aren't in a hurry, I have two being rebuilt now. Should be done in a couple of weeks (waiting on seals).
I suspect that they put the gear oil in when the first heard the noise to quiet it. I would be intersted in taking the old unit and having that rebuilt. Don't run it too long like that or other damage may occur. Mine failed the same way. Got one from a salvage yard and was exactly the same way. That is how I got two of them. Finally, another Ford Festiva.com guy sold me a 4 speed to get me by until I get these rebuilt (by the way a 4 speed bolts right in - I get about 4 mpg less and the engines revs are high).
PM me if you are interested.

[BlownSkillet]

Old thread but wanted to bring back up with another question.

While replacing wheel bearings & split CV boots, obviously lube came out of the MTX. Golden in color, from what I read, is the factory fluid. I read EVERYWHERE that MERCON ATF should be used and I have used it in many T-5 Mustang trannys BUT, which MERCON do we need to use, Dextron/Mercon , Mercom III or Mercon V (FORD Synthetic ATF)?

[phantorn]

Alot of time factory fluid is not red(no dye added)Stay away from synthetic if you have alot of miles on it.I use BG syncro shift it is made especially for front wheel drive manual transaxlles.I'm not sure you can get Dexron/Mercon anymore(this is the fluid listed in the service manual)We use the III in the rare occasion we get to service a manual.The V is a synthetic blend.

[scitzz]

I have stuck with gear lube since I put this trans in my car. My original trans died after4 years/ 198,000 miles due to leak. Had nowhere to fix it, so paid aamco to rebuild it. Then it died after just 1 year/50,000 miles. Said screw it, bought one out of the junkyard with 120,000+ miles on it for $40, put gear oil in, haven't changed it since (oil or trans) and am running strong 10 years and over 250,000 miles. Thats 370,000 miles on a trans with gear lube. Just my two cents!

[FestYboy]

factory book says that mercon is in the tranys, NOT gear lube.

[FB71]

wow, someone please dig up the old thread on this....

I'll fill all of ya in, since I was privy to this from inside Ford....

Factory fill was a light gear oil, around 50wt. Ford was concerned about shifting concerns in cold weather, so they called out Mercon/Dexron III as the replacement fluid. Either fluid works just fine, since the Festiva application puts the trans under very little pressure. However, I have found that gear oil does help the trans run a bit quieter and cooler, but does cause some increased shifting effort when the trans is cold. Mercon improves fuel econ a touch and improves cold weather shifting, but does let the trans run a bit warmer (maybe 15-20deg F) and you can detect a bit more gear noise at very low speeds. The temp difference is because of the high pressure additives that are in gear oil, but not ATF, which I'm sure has a small effect on wear. But, My '94 went over 200k on Mercon with no issues...

In my '90, I run a 50/50 mix of 80w-90 gear oil and 30wt engine oil. No noise, good cold shifting, IR temp probe shows 125 degF operating temp in 65 degF ambient temps.

In my '88, I run Mercon V full synthetic. Very slight gear noise below 20mph, slick shifting, good fuel econ (38mpg+), IR temp probe shows 132 degF at 65-70 degF ambient.

Hope that helps.

FestYboy (and everyone else), you'll learn eventually that even the Ford service publications are often wrong (I know, I re-wrote several of them).