rat rod 3.03 3 speed on the column transmission question

[hedz]

i put in fresh 80w90 amsoil in my transmission a little over 4 years ago. since that time i may have put 10k miles on my truck. 15k tops. i checked my oil today because i have had a very light leak forever. the transmission oil level is fine. however it is now a very dark fluid. now it looks like heavy weight diesel oil that's gone over 5k miles.

should i change it?

all gears are shifting well. however i think the transmission is alot noisier than it used to be

[sargentrs]

Personally, if that was the first time it had ever been changed, I'd do it again. Not because there's necessarily anything wrong with it, just to be sure it's good and clean. You're never going to get all the old fluid out of that tranny so there was some of the old thick stuff left in there that mingles with the new and immediately darkens it. Another quick changing will dilute that even more and make it that much cleaner.

[Ranchero50]

I don't think the old three speed really cares what fluid is in it. I'd guess the noise is thanks to the Amsoil's superior cleaning properties suspending all the contaminates in the oil so they get run through all the metal to metal contacts vs. letting them lay in the crevices and bottom of the case.

[hedz]

I don't think the old three speed really cares what fluid is in it. I'd guess the noise is thanks to the Amsoil's superior cleaning properties suspending all the contaminates in the oil so they get run through all the metal to metal contacts vs. letting them lay in the crevices and bottom of the case.

looking back i know now that amsoil was a waste of money. if you're spending that kind of money the product needs to have fresh green crude in it. like schaefers or certain subaru or toyota oil