Hard shifting in cold weather (1 Viewer)

[TLC4K2]

Hey everyone. I've had Kaylee ('83 FJ60) for almost 4 years now, and we've done a lot with fixing her up. I'm starting to drive her more and more, and generally feel like she's in much better condition now than when we bought her. But as we've driven into colder conditions, now I'm experiencing something new. She does NOT want to shift from 1st into 2nd gear right after starting in cold weather, say anything less than 50F. I'll sometimes have to apply as much force as I can, to move that shift lever into 2nd, and I have to shift really low in the RPMs. But shifts into 3rd or 4th are easy. As she warms up, the problem goes away (say, within 5min of drivetime). Downshifting is relatively easy for all gears. What's going on to cause this? I'm going to be checking all my fluids again tomorrow just to rule out anything obvious like low clutch fluid or transmission fluid, but I figure if I was low on either then all my shifting would be rough. Any suggestions?

Also, I recall reading someone's build notes, and that they switched over either their clutch fluid or tranny oil from one brand to another brand and it seemed to make for smoother shifting. Of course now that I want to see that thread, I can't find it despite multiple searches. If that post rings a bell for someone, can you share the link? Or at least tell me what the product was that was listed? I'd like to give that a try. Even when warmed up, she doesn't like shifting into 2nd as smoothly as the other gears. Thanks all.

 

[DrRock]

Hey everyone. I've had Kaylee ('83 FJ60) for almost 4 years now, and we've done a lot with fixing her up. I'm starting to drive her more and more, and generally feel like she's in much better condition now than when we bought her. But as we've driven into colder conditions, now I'm experiencing something new. She does NOT want to shift from 1st into 2nd gear right after starting in cold weather, say anything less than 50F. I'll sometimes have to apply as much force as I can, to move that shift lever into 2nd, and I have to shift really low in the RPMs. But shifts into 3rd or 4th are easy. As she warms up, the problem goes away (say, within 5min of drivetime). Downshifting is relatively easy for all gears. What's going on to cause this? I'm going to be checking all my fluids again tomorrow just to rule out anything obvious like low clutch fluid or transmission fluid, but I figure if I was low on either then all my shifting would be rough. Any suggestions?

Also, I recall reading someone's build notes, and that they switched over either their clutch fluid or tranny oil from one brand to another brand and it seemed to make for smoother shifting. Of course now that I want to see that thread, I can't find it despite multiple searches. If that post rings a bell for someone, can you share the link? Or at least tell me what the product was that was listed? I'd like to give that a try. Even when warmed up, she doesn't like shifting into 2nd as smoothly as the other gears. Thanks all.

Root cause of sluggish shifting in cold weather is typically caused by the gear oil in the transmission. Do you know when the oil was changed last and if so, what brand and weight was used? As you correctly stated, not all gear oils are the same in a given weight. Do a search here on Mud to see what gear oil brand and weight folks recommend as I can't remember off the top of my head. Also, how many miles are on the transmission? If this is an H42 or an H55, these transmissions are very robust but syncros do wear over time. I recently upgraded to a H55 from the stock H42 which had 190k on it and the H55 is definitely needing some break in miles. My old H42 shifted like butter, despite the "high" miles. Last thing to check would be the shifter bushings. Those are super easy to replace.

Let us know how it goes.

Cheers, James

 

[TLC4K2]

This issue has taken a bit of a turn. I crawled under the land cruiser this afternoon to start checking oil levels, and noticed that I seem to have a leaky rear seal on the transfer case. Oil has been spraying out of the transfer case, all along the underside of the body in a pattern that seems to correlate with that seal. Then, when I went to check the oil levels, I couldn't turn the transfer case check plug. Even better, the manual transmission's plug had been, ahem, altered. Someone, (in their infinite wisdom) had welded or braised a socket head to the check plug for the manual transmission. I'm a little nervous about messing with it, and right about then I started to run out of daylight so I called it for the day. Sometime within the next week or so, we're going to fit a ratchet to it and see if we can turn it. I've attached a picture of this latest little redneck engineering. Has anyone ever seen something like this? Back to the probably leaking seal, I'd be curious if any of you would care to rate how complicated that fix might be. I've attached a photo of that spray pattern too. If you zoom in, you can see just left of center of the picture, exactly where the spray pattern ends.

 

[DrRock]

My guess is you have the common issue of the seal failing between the transmission and the transfer case, yielding in the transfer case getting overfilled. First thing I'd check the level in the transmission via the hillbilly delux engineering solution. Once you have confirmed and filled this to the factory level. Move onto the transfer case and do the same. Drive the truck for a few hours and then recheck the levels in both. If you have more in the transfer case, this will confirm the seal failure. One can remove the transfer case in situ and do a rebuild. @cruiseroutfit has rebuild kits which are first rate. Easy job if you are comfortable with basic maintenance. I'd also plan on replacing all of the drain plugs and crush washers while you're in there too.

 

[TLC4K2]

Awesome, thanks. I'm almost afraid to ask for details about " check the level in the transmission via the hillbilly delux engineering solution". I was just going to try to get that darn fill plug off with relatively garden-variety methods. Is there some trick to make it easier, that I don't know about?

 

[DrRock]

Awesome, thanks. I'm almost afraid to ask for details about " check the level in the transmission via the hillbilly delux engineering solution". I was just going to try to get that darn fill plug off with relatively garden-variety methods. Is there some trick to make it easier, that I don't know about?

No, I'd just remove it via the current socket but go easy and be prepared for the potential of stripped threads or a different thread than factory. Either way you need to asses how much fluid is in the transmission.

 

[TLC4K2]

Thanks for all of this. Checking that trans fluid was already task #1, but especially now with this additional information. We're almost certainly just going to drain the old fluid and replace it all anyway; that's an overdue task. I also did finally find that thread about "best transmission fluid" options. I'll be going with Redline for this refill. Depending on what I find, might just go ahead and do the rebuild while I'm at it.