Aidan my gearbox oil

[crazydiamond]

Hi Aidan, youve been onto me avery time I see you about me checkiing my gearbox oil....well, I did it yesterday. Had the van for 15 years and never checked the oil. Aint I terrible. Well the good news is the oil I drained off was really not that dirty, still viscous, over 2.5 litres and didnt even smell much. But what a pain of a job!!
1. backed van onto ramps to get at the fill and drain plugs.
2. undid fill plug and very pleasantly supprised very few shards of metal on the magnet so I think the box is good for another 150000 miles. without having to disconect the gear linkage drained into a bucket.
3. thought I cant get all the oil to drain out with the backend on the ramps!! so have to move van back down ramps. Knocked over bucket!!!!! oil everywhere including all over my fifty year old length of axminster stair carpet I use to lie on!. Clean up mess and finish draining gearbox.
4. Make up a funnel-hosepipe-filler from engine bay to fill plug (as Mocki Steve Wiki suggestion). bl***y pain to feed down into fill hole cuz I cant get under van now with my lpg leisure tank under one side and water tank under other side! Starts to rain
5. while draining went to Wilkinson bought 4lt Comma sae EP80W-90 GL4 at £2.77 lt. Its raining like nobodies bussiness now.
6. managed to get about 3lt in but couldnt get more in cuz my drive sloppes forward a bit!! jack up front of van as high as I could to allow me to get the full 3.5lt in.
7. what a pain it is to get the fill plug back in.......much cussing and bumping of head and other bits, wiggled under side of van thinking no way can I get the bl**dy plug back in..but managed it anyway eventually
8. stopped raining now ive done the job. Just got to clear up. spilled oil, old oil into emptied bottles mopp up everywhere cuz of rain, I had my garage door up and over open and the rain has run back along the opened door and has been pouring off the end into the garage!
9. take van for drive and dump the oil at the local council tip. Gerarbox does feel smoother and changes well. It was ok befor but its better now.
JOB DONE and you cant tell me off anymore either!

[Aidan]