2014-07-12

The chassis of car #2 had modern oil in the rear differential housing. The Model T is designed for very heavy oil - 600 weight. The modern oil is much thinner and leaked through the seals to contaminate the break shoes (which we have still not been cleaned). Today we removed that oil from the rear differential housing.

Draining the oil from the transmission
Unlike modern cars, the transmission and the engine use the same oil. The oil plug is located under the transmission. I loosened it and found almost no oil in there - the oil must have already been drained.

Pumped oil from rear differential housing
The rear differential housing is lower than the oil plug beneath the transmission - or at least it is fed by pipes that slope downwards toward the rear of the vehicle, so the oil in that differential housing will not leak out when emptying the oil at the transmission oil plug.

Furthermore, there is no oil drain plug on the rear differential housing. However, there is an oil filler plug about two-thirds of the way up the housing.

To remove the oil, we used an oil transfer pump, which cost about $17 at the local auto parts store. There was also a $4 one, but nobody restores cars to save money. After about a dozen pumps, oil started to spurt through. I pumped for a while longer after the spurting of oil stopped - maybe 10 minutes.

The plan
We are going to put some 600w oil in the car to see if it leaks at the axle near the rear breaks. We bought 3 quarts of 600w oil from ebay for about $13 per quart.