Gearbox grease/oil 1938 ES2

Hi Mark,

It's best to use grease on the initial build but not as general lubricant as the speed of the gears simply coats the gearbox inner surface with most of the grease and very little does any lubricating. Any good mineral high melting point grease should be o.k. along with a SAE 50 mono grade oil should work well. Fill to the bottom of the filler plug hole but be prepared for it to leak out of the bottom gear selector pivot as this is the lowest point and is difficult to seal. Unless you can improve the seal with a modern type you will have to put up with the situation, but don't worry too much as the layshaft gears will lift the oil from below this level and lubricate the rest of the parts. It will be a good idea to top up before long journeys to be safe. The positive stop obviously does not have any high speed moving parts, so a good coating of grease is fine.The parts that are easily overlooked are the clevis pins in the external linkage and their respective holes that can wear to the extent that you can only select 3 out of 4 gears. Regards, Richard.

Morris lubricants supply self-levelling grease. I use it on my oldies gearboxes. It's also a pretty good chain lube. The easiest way to fill the gearbox is with a large (I use 60ml) syringe.