Posted by David Sherman on Monday, November 07, 2005 at 8:22PM :
In Reply to: Re: It would seem that he doesn't.... posted by MoparNorm on Monday, November 07, 2005 at 8:07PM :
I wonder too. Although the guy sounds knowledgeable, he doesn't give a lot of reasoning behind his opinions. He basically says that "gear oil" should only be used in axles, not gear boxes, which certainly goes against what's implied by the term "gear oil".
The one factual thing I've heard is that EP additives cause trouble in gears that are subjected to continual high shear stress, namely worm gears in industrial equipment. Apparently under such conditions the EP additives separate out and turn into a sort of wax. I'm not sure if it was on this forum or elsewhere but somebody gave an example of a worm gear box on some restaurant equipment that failed because they'd used EP gear oil in it and the oil had turned to wax.
The part about detergent being important to keep gear oil clean doesn't make much sense either. Motor oil contains detergent not to clean the inside of the engine, as is widely supposed, but to keep fine soot particles from clumping together and clogging the filter or oil passages. Soot is not an issue in gear boxes, and every time I've drained an old gear box, unless it ran out of oil and overheated, the only visible contaminant in the oil is water.
Follow Ups: