After reading Phatty's thread on the rear diff teardown & how dirty the oil was I decided I should change mine. Oil colour was very dark on mine also with whiskers of steel on the drain magnet but fortunately no other bits of steel. On the rear diff Elsawin says oil capacity is 1 litre but mine took 1.5 litres. Mine is the basic one with no diff lock or freewheel.
On the front gearbox, most of the oil is stored in the bevel box side, with a small amount in the main gearbox side.[there are two drain plugs] Total capacity was around the mark at 2.7 litres. Only one of my drain plugs is fitted with a magnet,[bevel gear side] not sure if that is normal. There is only one fill plug & elsawin says to run the engine with the gearbox in second gear for around two minutes. This is obviously to stabilize the level between the two boxes. The level is then checked again & in one part of elsawin the level should be 9mm below the bottom of drain hole. In another part it says to bring level to bottom of hole.???? I presume the lower level is used if you have problems with oil blowing past seals.
I took my van to my son's business to use his hoist & I thought I had everything covered with the tools/oil/pump etc. I then found a different tool for the plugs is needed, front is 14mm & rear is 17mm. While I had the correct tool at home [14mm] we made one that did the job useing a bolt with 14 AF hex & welding a nut to the threaded portion.
On the front gearbox, most of the oil is stored in the bevel box side, with a small amount in the main gearbox side.[there are two drain plugs] Total capacity was around the mark at 2.7 litres. Only one of my drain plugs is fitted with a magnet,[bevel gear side] not sure if that is normal. There is only one fill plug & elsawin says to run the engine with the gearbox in second gear for around two minutes. This is obviously to stabilize the level between the two boxes. The level is then checked again & in one part of elsawin the level should be 9mm below the bottom of drain hole. In another part it says to bring level to bottom of hole.???? I presume the lower level is used if you have problems with oil blowing past seals.
I took my van to my son's business to use his hoist & I thought I had everything covered with the tools/oil/pump etc. I then found a different tool for the plugs is needed, front is 14mm & rear is 17mm. While I had the correct tool at home [14mm] we made one that did the job useing a bolt with 14 AF hex & welding a nut to the threaded portion.
