BA10/5 fluid change question

[wutangwisdom]

changed my milky grey gear oil in the 89 comanche yesterday. When I took the fill plug out oil came pouring out all over the place ( wasnt prepared for this since I didnt think that much oil would come out of the fill plug) is this normal thing to happen or a sign it was overfilled? I did not jack the front end up. So my question is should I have jacked the front end up to prevent this from happening? when I filled it back up I just filled it till it slowly started dripping from the fill plug. 

 

Hope this makes sense to yous people

[fiatslug87]

Overfilled, your procedure is correct. I've heard of some people filling them by removing the shifter and adding from the top. Not sure why anyone would want to this but...

[wutangwisdom]

my only thought is if the plug is seized..... I used propane torch drain came out fine but fill plug i used a socket and used my bottle jack to jack the ratchet up to pop it loose ..... I was running out of ideas and patience ureka! it worked. thanks for your time

[wutangwisdom]

guess my only other concern is what problems can overfilling it cause long term?

[reubj]

The fluid wasn't milky due to being contaminated with water was it?

[Eagle]

The fluid wasn't milky due to being contaminated with water was it?

I wonder the same thing. Gear oil should NOT be milky gray. That's typically what color gear oil turns when it has been contaminated with water -- which would also explain why it was overfilled.

[91Pioneer]

Well if water got in there, my first suspect would be the vent. Check your vent and hose and make sure water hasn't been getting in that way. If that's the problem, just refill it and you're probably fine...

[jpnjim]

I had a few different BA 10-5's over the years, and always had an issue with them puking gear oil out of the vent line if I didn't extend the line to the top of the firewall, or under the bed edge by the gas fill.

 

It does sound like you had water in yours, flushing out the fluid again might be a good idea.

 

I was one of the guys who would take the 3 shifter bolts off to fill it from the top

 was just nicer to sit in the cab pouring oil instead of holding 1/2 filled gear oil bottles underneath and wondering if the drip on the fill hole threads was because it's full, or I dripped it there while filling it.

 

I had good luck running BA's over the years, and can remember when the junkyards were getting $750-1000 each for them(!)

 so expensive to buy, I'd bring the spare in my truck box for any runs more than a couple hundred miles from home lol

(never needed it on the road tho)

 

I also had one get so hot on a highway trip I pulled over on the side of the road for a fluid change.

Weird, because the old fluid wasn't really old, and it ran cool as a cucumber the rest of the trip and all the way back home.

[metrictonner]

There are TWO plugs on the BA: drain and fill.  Drain is above the cross member (rear engine mount), fill is on the right side of the tranny.

[Crash]

A hand pump in a fluid bottle works well too. I made the custom tool for removing the drain/fill plugs for BA10/5, by grinding down some cheap chinexican 3" extension. 

The fill and drain plugs were on the same side on my BA10/5, maybe 4WD version is different from 2WD? 

 

Unless you know EXACTLY how much to fill from the shifter, even if you do this it is still recommended to remove the fill plug. So you know when to stop.