Ok so I'm going to the parts store to buy gear oil for my T-5.

I will be filling it from the under the shifter plate.

How will I know when its full? Do I just fill till its at the top?

 

Take out the fill plug. When oil comes out of it, it's full.

 

Remove the fill plug on the side of the transmission, pour fluid in until it starts to come out of the fill hole. the fluid level should be level with the top fill hole on a level surface.

 

Where is the fill plug?? Is it under the car? If so I will have to wait because its raining outside.

 

It's on the pass side, about halfway up, right above the drain plug.

DO NOT take off the thing on the driver's side that looks like a plug!!!! If you do, things inside the trans will fall apart, and you'll have to remove and tear down the trans to re-assemble it before you'll have R & 5th again.

 

ok thank you. now what gear oil should i use?

 

Yes.

You should use gear oil.

Synthetic is better. I prefer Mobil1.

 

what weight?

 

The only one it comes in, AFAIK....

Something like 80W-90 or 75W-90.

NOT, if you see 90W-140 or something super-thick like that, though. Just yerbasic gear oil.

 

FYI, T5's are spec'd for ATF, not gear oil.

 

That is true. Back when I had a T-5 I used to read chilton and all the manuals I could find. They all said use ATF. Just a heads up.

I used normal mobil ATF. Stuff is good. I used to use it to clean paintball gun parts. Lubes everything. haha.

 

I Thought T-5's used gear oil and T-5 WC used ATF.

 

No, they are all spec'd for ATF. However, having said that, Bob Hanlon (a premiere resource for T5's) says Redline works well too. Bloody expensive though!

 

I am 90% sure I didn't have a WC T-5 and mine was speced to use ATF.

On a side note, its not like the WC and the standard T-5 are miles appart from eachother in design. GM would never spec out two very similar trannies to use different types of gear oil. Adds complexity where is not needed.

Use ATF

 

Yes, When I replaced My transmission ATF is what is required... filled gear Oil in my Old T-5 and it was Destroyed after a few hundred miles...this also could be because the gearbox was Beatin to hell...( metal Files came out with the gear oil when I drained it

 

No, they are NOT all spec'ed for ATF, as shown by this page out of the 83 Camaro GM service manual.

The factory waffled back and forth on that a couple of times. These cars, as well as all the other vehicles with T-4s and T-5s in them, originally called for gear lube. Then in about 85 or 86, whichever year it was that the CAFE requirement went up another notch, they changed to ATF, to wring the last possible .01 mpg out of them. Then, later one when they got the motors more efficient, they went back to gear lube in these cars, most likely because they were having warranty problems with the too-thin ATF in them. Keep in mind, that throughout all of this, NOTHING WHATSOEVER changed inside the transmission; it remained IDENTICAL in every way, part # for part #.

Then when GM changed their purchasing specs to accept the 2nd design T-5 in 88, that one DOES IN FACT call for ATF, because it has composition synchro rings, and bearings with a more appropriate design for the thinner lube. Although, I've used Mobil1 gear lube in my own 2nd design T-5, quite successfully. Maybe some kinds of gear lube are incompatible with the composition blocker rings, I don't know for sure about that.

In any case, the common-sense rule of thumb is, gear lube in the 1st design, due to brass blocker rings; and ATF in the 2nd design, due to the composition blocker rings.

 

Ok I'm going to drain my tranny (let it drip dry for an hour or so).

I would like to know how much fluid does it take to fill an empty T5.

I'm going to use moble1 80w.

 

If I was you, I will stick with ATF, and if I want to go expensive, mobil 1 ATF, if I want to go cheap but good, Maxlife dex/mercon from walmart, very good stuff also, that wat im gonna put on my tranny.

 

My tranny is from 84 which would make it a 1st design. so I will stick to gear oil. Unless when I drain my tranny it had atf.