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Dana 300 Oil

bordo380

CJ-8 Member
City
Arlington
State
Tx
Ok team what oil do I run in this thing?

I'm getting ready for a dove hunting trip and it will be the first time I really use this jeep. I'm pumped. I'm trying to check everything out so checked the fill hole on the TC and red ATF came out. It was full. Is this safe or should I drain it and fill with some 80w?
 

jbeemer

CJ-8 Member
Gold Member
City
Conklin
State
MI
I've always ran 80w-90 gear lube, that's what they were designed for.

Do you have a automatic? The transmission could be leaking atf into the transfercase. Was it over full?
 

bordo380

CJ-8 Member
City
Arlington
State
Tx
I have a T5. I thought that might be the issue too but isn't it divorced?
 
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AK-RWC

Legacy Registered User
Gold Member
City
south central
State
AK
It's easy to be confused. All the "other" Jeeps use ATF in the transfer cases since they're chain driven, and now that CJs are becoming less and less common, I think people just assume they're the same as a YJ. (How many times have you had your Scramblers called a "Wrangler" lately? I've had it happen twice in the last year.) (I'm also excluding the BW1339 which used special fluid.) I did learn that AMC made a special fluid for the Dana 300 as well as the T-5 in the '80s, and even have a couple quarts still tucked away somewhere, but the reality is that 80W-90 works just fine for the Dana 300.

Similarly, our version of the T-5 also uses gear oil. That's different than the World Class T-5 used in Mustangs and Camaros, which use ATF. And the AX-15 also uses ATF.

(To make things even more confusing, after upgrading my wife's NP231 with the 1.25" chain and 6-pinion planetary, I went with the advice I got from George at Transfercases Unlimited to put fully synthetic Mobil 1 5W-30 in it. He refuses to warranty any NP231HD that he builds if it just had ATF in it. He claims that the chain whips up the ATF and it evaporates too quickly; the only reason the manufacturers use ATF is to save on gear oil and avoid the confusion of having one type of fluid in the transmission and another type in the transfer case.)
 

bordo380

CJ-8 Member
City
Arlington
State
Tx
Wow. Ok thanks RC. I had a friend at work give me a lesson on the world class T5's today. Typical mustang guy. So no CJ's got a world class version?

Well label me dumb I drained my TC and its red gear oil. It's frothy so it threw me. Prob so old it feels like ATF.
 
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AK-RWC

Legacy Registered User
Gold Member
City
south central
State
AK
Wow. Ok thanks RC. I had a friend at work give me a lesson on the world class T5's today. Typical mustang guy. So no CJ's got a world class version?

Nope. At least not from the factory. There was a stretch of years when 4 Wheel Drive Hardware was offering a WC T-5 replacement (I think built by Novak), but it's been out of the catalogs for a very long time. I got lucky about 9 years ago when my T-5 lost 3rd. I found a GM WC T-5 on eBay that was being sold after sitting on the shelf of a defunct transmission shop for many many years. It had the Dana 300 adapter on the back, and they claimed it was rebuilt for a Jeep. It had the GM input shaft and steel front bearing retainer. It took some work but I eventually made it all work correctly.

Well label me dumb I drained my TC and its red gear oil. It's frothy so it threw me. Prob so old it feels like ATF.

Maybe somebody tried to top-off the Dana 300 with ATF?
 

bordo380

CJ-8 Member
City
Arlington
State
Tx
When I get around to putting a 5.3 in this jeep i want a TC that can be flat pulled as of now I'll disconnect the drive shaft.

Yeah that's true maybe someone topped it off with the ATF.
 
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