I drained my t-case and got a fluid that looked liked dirty atf. Isnt the t-case on my auto fj62 supposed to be gear oil? Should I just flush it and put in gear oil?
Thanks
Andy
Thanks
Andy
ATF in TC?
- Thread starter mtrdrms
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ATF and gear oil smell way different. You may have a bad seal
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- #5
It really doesnt look like there is gear oil in the tranny. Its kinda pink and its definatly thinner than gear oil.
I know some GM transfer cases take ATF and ford manual transmissions take it too. Could be someone just put it in thinking it was supposed to be in there.
Andy
I know some GM transfer cases take ATF and ford manual transmissions take it too. Could be someone just put it in thinking it was supposed to be in there.
Andy
There is a seal and an o-ring. My t-case was filled with ATF also. The o-ring on the idler shaft was bad, I'm sure the seal was bad too. Working on the t-case is pretty easy. Take your time. Read my McNamara install for some insight. You might want to think about that too while you are in there.
The gear oil won't really travel into the transmission since it's level is lower than the transmission.
The gear oil won't really travel into the transmission since it's level is lower than the transmission.
The atf will not hurt the transfer
I had an 89 FJ62 and the seal the failed between the xmission and xfercase. This is definitely what you are experiencing. Has it been leaking at all? The xmission basically pumps it into the xfercase when the seal fails. At the time this happened to me I was without a place to work on the truck and the delaer repair was pretty reasonable, for a toyota. If you have time, basic tools, maybe a jack to bring down the xfercase and a place to lay your back down you can do this yourself in a day.
By the way, don't wait too long. The xmission will over fill the xfer case and make quite a mess.
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- #10
Very good information gaylon thank you. I am wondering if this is really whats happening tho. I have two issues with the bad seal theory and please correct me if I'm wrong.
1. The transmission fluid level is not low at all. If it was leaking any considerable amount wouldn't the level go down?
2. The transfer case level was not high. I removed the fill plug before the drain plug and no fluid poured out of the fill plug like it should if the level was too high with ATF.
Also the fluid that came out the transfer seemed to be just ATF and not a gross mixture of ATF and gear oil.
Andy
The seal between my tc and transmission failed causing my transmission fluid level to be very high. The gear oil got pumped into the tranny. I also experienced transmission overheating problems after driving 100 miles because of the hot gear oil.
I looked back through the PO records for my 60, and the brilliant minds at Jiffy Lube had put ATF fluid in the t-case more than once, if you can believe that. This has been several years ago, and then he took it somewhere else and they got it right.
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- #13
Thanks for looking if you did it my behalf! I am really thinking this is what happened.
Andy
Put some fresh gear oil in it and run it for 3000 miles. Then change it again to see whatcha have. If the seal is bad you'll know. And like was said ATF isn't going to hurt it.
No change in either level. That is interesting. I am leaning towards trying to fill the TC with gear oil and see how it plays out. I think you will start to see fluid moving pretty soon. Maybe by the end of a week or two there should be 'contamination'.
"The seal between my tc and transmission failed causing my transmission fluid level to be very high. The gear oil got pumped into the tranny. I also experienced transmission overheating problems after driving 100 miles because of the hot gear oil." - that is really weird. I am certain that the opposite happened to mine. Should not matter, but are you running on 2WD or 4WD and mostly highway or city? Not sure if this will help in figuring out why...
"The seal between my tc and transmission failed causing my transmission fluid level to be very high. The gear oil got pumped into the tranny. I also experienced transmission overheating problems after driving 100 miles because of the hot gear oil." - that is really weird. I am certain that the opposite happened to mine. Should not matter, but are you running on 2WD or 4WD and mostly highway or city? Not sure if this will help in figuring out why...
I'm betting someone just filled the transfer with the wrong fluid. BUT, if the seal is leaking, you don't want to get gear oil into the transmission, I suspect that will kill the AT in short order. Once you fill the transfer with gear oil, keep a close eye on things for the first while till you are satisfied that there is no mixing.
I was running in 2wd with a mix of city and highway. My problem went undiagnosed for a long time. My tc needed rebuilding, a bearing was toast plus the seals, and I had to flush the transmission several times to make sure that all of the gear oil was out.
