Transaxle oil cooler pumps Options

[pcar916]

How many of you are using gear pumps instead of diaphragm types and what filter element (micron) sizes are you using?

[john rogers]

Most of the sprayers I saw installed had one nozzle right over top of the ring and pinion mesh position and at least one other right over the gear stack, better is to use two on the gear stack. As I mentioned, it is a very good idea to use a replacement for the case vent and run a line to the puke tank. This is because the trans will now need 4 quarts instead of 3 and on initial start off some will spatter out and even a few drops of Swepco really stinks and those corner workers will black flag you......

There were some posts years ago by a few "experts" who said never to spray the oil into the R/P mesh as it will cause the whole thing to seize but that has never been the case and all the vintage cars I raced with had a nozzle for this. The gear stack squirter(s) will also take care of the bearing that everyone worries about since it is such a loose and sloppy made bearing, having a dedicated oil supply servers little purpose. If it was a very tight and precision assembly, then yes it might.

[pcar916]

... never to spray the oil into the R/P mesh as it will cause the whole thing to seize

I forgot about the catch-can and you're right, I'll install one. Too bad my engine catch-can is too far away to Y into it, unless... hmmm.

I always understood the mesh squirter was a bad idea when injected into the pinch side rather than the opening side, and that the problem is that at high rpm (>6500) it forced the teeth apart putting stress on both the pinion and carrier bearings as well as the case. First I've heard about seizing.

[Richard Casto]

I always understood the mesh squirter was a bad idea when injected into the pinch side rather than the opening side, and that the problem is that at high rpm (>6500) it forced the teeth apart putting stress on both the pinion and carrier bearings as well as the case. First I've heard about seizing.

I have no empirical evidence to support, but I also agree that injecting directly into the pinch is probably not a good idea from a pure engineering point of view. Especially if the action of squirting it in, makes it hard for the gears to evacuate oil during the process of meshing.

However, I suspect it is probably a moot point because the area of actual gear mesh is pretty well hidden and hard to reach due to surrounding teeth and other components and I also suspect the pressure levels (from the squinter) are not high enough to cause problems. With that said, I probably still wouldn't aim directly for the mesh!

One thing to keep in mind is the direction of travel of the ring gear. The bottom is sitting in a bath of fluid and when car is moving in a forward direction, there is a short path between the bottom and the pinion gear. So it already should be pulling up a lot of oil into the mesh anyhow? Is any R&P sprayer really for the R&P or the neighboring bearings? Or if it is sprayed directly onto the R&P is it mostly for extra lubrication, or cooling (on the assumption at what is being sprayed is the return oil from the cooler)? I would love to see what it looks like inside a transmission at speed from an oil flow/lubrication perspective.

Richard