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MG Midget and Sprite Technical - Oil fill tool

What do grown ups use for filling diffs and gearboxes with oil.

Filling the back axle is bad enough but using one of those 1 litre bottle with the flexible spout to fill the Datsun box was a real pain.

I'd expect there to be a tool like a huge syringe with a flexible pipe on the end but a quick search of ebay turned up nothing.
Jeremy Cogman

To fill the 'box I take out the gearstick and fill from there - much cleaner!
I am told that the trick with the diff is to drill a hole in the boot floor and do it from above. Yet to try that, but will probably do it this week. Not for the concours cars though.
John Collinson


I filled my gearbox last week using a piece of old 1/2" copper pipe left over from a long-gone plumbing job. It was about 45 or 50 cm long, and I put a kink of something like 20 or 30 degrees in the middle and stuffed a small funnel in the top.

Worked a treat - easy fill and no mess.
I've now put it in my toolbox with all the other useful bits and bodges.

That was a 1275 though, no idea where the fill hole is on the Datsun ;-)
MarkH1

Here in the USA the auto factors carry a little hand pump designed to fill some part of an outboard motor for a boat (lower transom unit or some such thing). Screws right into the top of a normal oil bottle and pumps most of the contents through a hose. Just used mine on my diff and Datsun trans on Sprite and midget. A bit tedious before you are done, but minimal wastage.
David "still pumping" Lieb
David Lieb

My mate's garage has a tool like a large trigger oil can (looks like the ones the fireman always used to oil the cranks and levers on the good ol'Briddish steam locomotives, before pulling out of Birmingham New Street, many years ago) which has a long flexible reinforced nylon pipe sticking out of the end of it.

I however have the remains of SIX Castrol EP90 containers that had a flexible clear tube and a pointy orangey-red end on them I cut one bottle to form a funnel with about 1/4 litre capacity and pushed about 5 or 6 tubes onto each other (some came with spare extension tube connectors) and now fill from the engine compartment after poking the end tube into the filler hole. The Castrol containers were available with straight and 90º ended conectors. I have both!
I just have to hold the funnel bit until the pipe has drained down and emptied and because they are clear there is no guess work involved
Bill

The simplest home made solutions are best 8^)

For filling my 1275 ribcase gearbox, I use a large plastic funnel with a length of garden hose jammed onto the spout. I have the added sophistication of a strategically placed jubillee clip on the hose that means the end of the hosepipe goes far enough into the 'box, but not too far.

Am I the only one who drains and refills his gearbox every year as a service item?

Wouldn't work with the diff though. I fill / top up direct from the squeezy plastic bottle long spout - I usually warm the bottle up in a pan of v hot water for 10 mins.
Steve Clark

I found that simply sticking a flexy tube on the nozzle of a gear oil bottle wasn't the best solution, as it required an extremely firm squeeze to dispense the stuff - firmer than I could easily muster. So I ended up using a much smaller squeeze bottle with a similar tube, and that did the trick. It was much easier to skoosh, and worked splendidly.

That said, in the past I've topped up my transmission from above, running a flexy tube down from the engine bay, crawling underneath, sticking it in the fill port, coming back topside, and feeding oil down through the tube via the aforementioned gear oil bottle, which is much more cooperative when you have gravity on your side. (As you may know, the 1500 tranny uses 85/90.)

I've also used a little hand-cranked pump, which apparently works by running rollers along a plastic tube inside. that's well and good, but if you're coming up from underneath with it, and manage to get it between pulses, the tube allows free passage of oil, and it begins to siphon out of the tranny/diff. So the small squeeze bottle is about the best I've found, short of actually going out and buying something special.

-:G:-
Gryf Ketcherside

I use a funnel and garden hose to fill the Type-9 from above the engine compartment, having crawled underneath to undo the filler plug in the first place.

Usually means a cupful of oil on the garage floor, but that's far better than trying to get the normal EP80 bottle and flexible spout into position... then get your hands in place to squeeze the bottle... and forget to close your eyes for the inevitable drips...

A
Anthony

Why was it a pain to fill the box with a bottle and attached pipe? I didn't have any problem.
filling
Please be very careful not to cross thread the nut when you've finished as it's not like you can just go out and buy another box if it splits.
G Lazarus

because you can't get the bottle anywhere near horizontal let alone above the hole so you have to force it in by squeezing. At best this means you'll get 2/3 of the bottle in so you then have to go and top the bottle up again (I'd bought a 5 litre bottle and was using an old EP90 bottle as the filler) which meant three fills to get it filled.

I think we already have evidence for you being a more patient person than me Gary!
Jeremy Cogman

Well if it's anything like mine, you'll barely have to ever top it up again. I seem to remmember using the semi synthetic oil that Rivergate recommended.
Next time it's empty(!) try filling from above by feeding a longer plastic tube through the top of the transmission tunnel and routing it around the side.

Not sure about the patience bit though.
G Lazarus

Yes I did consider that but I just wondered what proper mechanics used.

Bearing in mind it's been sitting a while and the change is a little sticky then I'll probably do an oil change after a bit.
Jeremy Cogman

I bought a small plastic pump that screws into the top of most oil and gear lube plastic bottles. Comes with a clear plastic tube that you can run into the gear box or rear axle. A few pumps and it's done, no mess. I bought mine at the local auto parts store for around $5 but there are other sources such as this one, (a little better built it looks) from Pegasus racing for $12. http://www.pegasusautoracing.com/productselection.asp?Product=3843


Bill Young

I used some pipe in thru the gear stick hole and syphoned from the oil container. Took a while but very little effort required (heat oil on radiator/in the sun first)
Will Munns

Gee, Bill, that's the same pump I referenced in my post way up there ;-) Perhaps it is "a few pumps" when you are topping it off, bu it is quite a few more than that when you are re-filling either the diff or the trans from empty!
David "ready to pump another quart of Redline MTL into my Datsun trans" Lieb
David Lieb

So it is David, just didn't make the connection when you mentioned outboard motors, thought you were talking about something else. Perhaps I did exaggerate a bit about a few pumps, but I've filled the Chevy 10 bolt on my Midget twice from empty and a Ford 8" after a posi adjustment and it wasn't too bad. I guess I find pumping that thing easier than fililng my eyes with 90 weight gear lube trying to pour it in from under the car. ;-) To paraphrase Robert Duval in "Apcaplypse Now" "I love the smell of gear lube in the morning". Like you said, about the easiest and cleanest way short of having the pumps like the pros use.
Bill Young

Here in the back woods of North Carolina our gear
oil comes from the hardware store packaged in
a plastic bottle with a pump built in. Includes
a length of plastic hose, and a "nozzle" with
spreadable "wings" that jams into the hole to
keep from falling out. Keep the bottle; just buy
oil after that. Works a treat and no leaks.

chuck
c c

Hi!

We used a Draper tool called an "oil suction gun". baiscally just a big syringe like you described, Jeremy. Screwfix do them for £6.99 but you may have an easier local supplier. quick & easy!

http://www.screwfix.com/prods/29430/Automotive/Mechanics-Tools/Oil-Suction-Gun

Also works fine for the diff.


-Craig
C Robertson

Diesel primer pump? Rubber squeezy thing.
rob multi-sheds thomas

This thread was discussed between 14/05/2008 and 15/05/2008

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