gearbox OIL and quantity.
Discussion
All the info you'll need on this kind of thing is here:
Viper Service Info
Fluid change procedure.
Viper Service Info
Transmission Oil
Who said vipers don’t have auto boxes because no one thought to tell the transmission and it rather likes to drink ATF. Gen1 and Gen2 cars were factory filled with DEXRON III ATF fluid. Later Gen 2 were switched to Castrol Syntorque which is a fully synthetic gear lube rather than the ATF but is also made out of gold at approx £20 a litre. It is a recommended replacement fluid to reduce Neutral Gear Rattle (NGR)In earlier cars. There should be a label stuck to the side of the transmission near the fill hole advising the use if DEXRONIII or on earlier cars DEXRON II. the later transmissions had different Syncros so the oil was changed to Castrol Syntorc..Fluid change procedure.
- Jack the vehicle up and support on stands.
- Remove the Transmission cover plate which is the plate bolted to the transmission tunnel with 20 bolts, so when you are done with those you will know your lefty Lucy from Righty Tighty.
- Remove the fill plug. 3/8 rachet..
- Remove Drain plug. Don’t forget your bowl to collect the oil.
- Let it all drain out, so time for a cuppa.
- Refit drain plug and torque to TBA FtLB
- Fill Transmission with your selected fluid. This is where the fun starts. One of the easier ways seems to be to use 1L bottles and a small length of tube so that you can get the tube in the fill hole and the bottle up as high as possible and squeeze it in. If you are using the synthetic lube don’t even consider a long length of tube and standing beside the vehicle as the stuff is so thick you will be there into next week. The transmission is full when the fluid is at the bottom of the fill hole. So fill it until a little runs back out.
- Refit Fill plug and torque to TBA FtLB
- Refit the transmission cover plate.
- Lower car and your done.
except dexron III does not exist as a standard any more, you can get stuff that looks like Dexron III but there are no controls on if it meets the expired standard any more. I have seen comment that suggests ATF+4 is backwards compatible and the recommended fluid for 97 T56 boxes. Its about £9 a bottle at your local Chrysler. the Syn torque was used in the later boxes and recommended for boxes where the user complained about NGR. Last time i checked this stuff was about £20 a bottle so probably about £30 now.
Interestingly enough the DEXRON IV bottle we brought in the US for the vette says not to use in Manual boxes, (the UK bottle did not say this) and it looks as if there is a significant change in the spec for DEXRON IV from III, the ATF+4 does not replicate this change.
If it was me i would save my pennies and use ATF+4 but then i work in IT and know nothing about oil other than what i read on the Internet which of course is 100% accurate.
Interestingly enough the DEXRON IV bottle we brought in the US for the vette says not to use in Manual boxes, (the UK bottle did not say this) and it looks as if there is a significant change in the spec for DEXRON IV from III, the ATF+4 does not replicate this change.
If it was me i would save my pennies and use ATF+4 but then i work in IT and know nothing about oil other than what i read on the Internet which of course is 100% accurate.
I would always use fully synthetic if you are going to do any track time, as dextron breaks down with heat, the gear box doesn't get much chance to cool being quite inclosed. The Gen2 T56 is a weak link! It doesn't hurt to over fill them upto 0.5L (for the track, helps stop the front main running dry under acceleration) but you will have to fill from the top to do so (ie remove shifter or mod a line onto the vent). I put a catch tank on the vent and it never blew anything, even with 0.5L over the factory fill of 3.8L.
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