Swepco 201 results

Leland Pate · 03-24-2002, 09:06 PM

As most of you know, my gearbox has seen better days.
The transmission has 221,000 miles on it and the first and second gear synchros are considerably worn.

I've heard the stories about Swepco 201 and the praise it has recieved.
Just yesterday I decided to swap the tranny fluid with fresh Swepco 201.
It went pretty smooth, that fliud is pretty thick... took a bit of effort to pump it up into the gearbox.
As soon as I started driving I did notice a distinct difference when trying to shift in 1st gear, but it was nothing spectacular. I was slightly disapointed but decided it was worth the shot.
Well today, my shifter started squeeking a bit.
When i installed the short shift kit, I didn't have any grease handy to put on the moving parts.
The squeek reminded me that i needed to find som heavy weight grease to smere around it.
So I found a tube of lithium grease today and disassembled it again, lubing everything up.

Wow.
WOW
WOW!

What a difference!
It was shifting great today!

I wasn't going to post anything about the swepco because it didn't do any miricles... but after I got around to lubing the shifter assembly... it's like another car!!!

So, now I'm faced with the dilema as to whether or not I should delay my gearbox rebuild... I'll see how it acts in the upcoming week.

Just wanted to back up the claims that although Swepco isn't a "snake oil" or "miracle lube".... but it sure made a huge difference!

chuckr · 03-25-2002, 03:41 AM

Way to go Leland !
I have 230,000 on my origional tranny(83SC) and, although my first and second are notchy it shifts fine.Give the Swepco some time to fully coat your gears,maybe a couple of days or so and you will be fine!

911nut · 911nut's Garage

Leland, some people claim that installing a short shift kit accelerates syncro wear. So if you get another 100K out of your 915 then we'll have exposed another old wives tale.

Keep us posted.

dickster · 03-25-2002, 05:54 AM

leland - but it was the grease that made all the difference

Clark Griswald · Clark Griswald's Garage

Glad to hear it is working good.

I think a little too much magic is attributed to swepco. In my experience it definitely changes the shifting behavior, but it didn't make me thinner, regrow hair or put lead back in my pencil (actually I have plenty of lead left, but the hair is thinning).

In fact I find that it makes shifting a bit balky when it is cold. Things smooth out when it warms up.

A lot of people end up doing other clutch/shifter related items at the same time as the swepco, then it can be confusing trying to determine what did what.

The 915 is really sensitive to things like a miss-adjusted clutch or shifter. Sometimes a few turns of a wrench (or in your case a little grease) can make a huge difference to a 915 that once seemed to need a rebuild.

KTL · 03-25-2002, 08:14 AM

I think Leland is saying the Swepco made a huge difference because he's comparing the operation of the trans. to the operation BEFORE he installed the unlubed short shift kit. Meaning, he's comparing factory lubed shifter with no Swepco to lubed short shifter with Swepco.

Whatever the case may be, Chuck is right on the money saying that the difference could be largely due to cumulative effects of the now properly adjusted/freshly lubed shift linkage, adjusted clutch cable, and the addition of the new magic blue fluid.

Great to hear that the adjustments (and $$$ spent) were worthwhile on the 220K 915.

Leland Pate · 03-25-2002, 09:27 AM

Well I was in a hurry last night to write the thread so I didn't spend a whole lot of time explaining things...

I've also heard that the short shift kit accellerates the wear on worn gearboxes... I wasn't worried about it since I was planning a rebuild anyway.

I put the short shift kit in the car about a week ago. I didn't have any lube handy so I put it together dry. I knew it wasn't a great idea... but figured it could wait.
The shifting was crisper, and noticably shorter in throw, but just a tad more effort to put it into gear was required.

When I swapped fluid, I did feel it engage easier, but it was still sluggish.... you know....when you have to hold pressure on it at the gate until it slowly slides in?

After I lubed up the ball joint, and shifting axis pin, guide and springs.... Wowie!

I'm still impressed!

Early_S_Man · 03-25-2002, 09:46 AM

Lee,

I'm glad your 915 is behaving better after the maintenance!

Your experience once again demonstrates the benefits of a 'Sytemic' approach to fixing a problem, rather than a quick fix! If you are working on a shifting compaint ... it seems much more logical to fix everything that needs maintenance, rather than multiple afternoons visiting the shifter, bushings, Swepco, etc. And, even $9/gallon Valvoline gear oil has its' benefits when changed annually! Swepco 201/210/212 is nice, and has many benefits which I recommend ... but, sometimes just getting people to change the gear oil is the biggest improvement in maintenance of their 911 shifting and 915 life expectancy!

On a similar matter ... a flashing brake warning light on SC's is oftern idicative of a need to rebuild master cylinder, calipers, and replace the flex lines ... not just replace the sticking switch that was contaminated by rubber particles and old, corrosive brake fluid!

Jdub · 03-25-2002, 09:53 AM

Good point on the SC brake switch Warren. I am often guilty of the non-systemic approach when I scatter-gun "fixes" to the collective Pmasses.

It is as if I shine a light in a cave and, when I see the extent of the light, proclaim I've found the edges of darkness. Boy how I am learning the opposite!

Now, on the Swepco thread; have you tried sawdust?

John

PS: That WAS a joke! But oh boy, how those trans quiet down with a bit of wood!

ebrownson · 03-25-2002, 10:11 AM

Leland:

Did you go straight to the new Swepco or did you run a new standard trans gear oil in it first for a few days (or weeks) prior to changing to Swepco? I have seen this approach on a few posts and am wondering what the benefit is. How old was the previous gear oil? I have some Swepco in the garage waiting for duty but was wondering if I needed to "flush" the old stuff out first with some less expensive standard gear oil. Anybody have opinions on this?

Eric
83 SC

Early_S_Man · 03-25-2002, 10:38 AM

Eric,

There are two sets of circumstances for which I have been recommending the 'cheap flush' for more than two years here ...

The first is for old, dark gear oil of unknown age ... that may have been in the transaxle for many years, and many multiples of 10,000 miles!

The second is for transaxles that are experiencing grinding in any gear, or difficulty getting into any gear ... regardless of whether the gear oil is dark/discolored or not. Often, there will be many steel filings and perhaps broken dog teeth clinging to the drain plug magnet, or that drain out in the old gear oil! The idea of the flush is to allow a few hundred miles of gear oil splash and heat cycles to loosen and 'rinse' out the maximum amount of particles before putting the Swepco in. If significant numbers of broken dog teeth are found, and grinding continues ... you may want to hold off on putting in the Swepco until after repairs are made. It would be a shame to lose $40 worth of Swepco when the transaxle is torn down!

Leland Pate · 03-25-2002, 11:43 AM

Warren is correct as usual,
I only put the Swepco in out of sheer curiosity...

I guess you could also say that it was "burning a hole in my closet".

When I drained the gearbox, I was expecting the worst... I only found very small filings attached to the drainplug magnet... no honkin' chunks of dog teeth just yet... but maybe that's just because they've been worn flat!!!

I drove it a bit more today... I'm still going to do the rebuild.
It shifts very very nicely into gears now... very happy about that... (it really takes the effort out of redlights).
But if I revi it hard from a stop and shift spiritedly into second... I still got a loud "grind" twice...

...so,... it definately did work... but it's not a miracle fix.

JuiceMan · 03-25-2002, 11:53 AM

Hmmmm I wonder if Swepco will bring back my Reverse gear? It's shot!

All jokes aside though my transmission is about dead but I don't haev the money to have the thing rebuilt until next year so I may squirt some Swepco in there this summer and see what happens.

ebrownson · 03-25-2002, 12:05 PM

Well I just looked at the maintenance records for my P-car and could not find anything about replacing gear oil or tranny oil so that means that I have gear oil that is 9 years old and 91,000 miles long in there. Boy, that stuff smells bad when it's new, I hope it doesn't get worse with age!

I am not having any grinding problems while shifting, just some occasional difficulty getting it in gear at a full stop. Of course that could be from linkage problems. I may want to do what Leland did and grease everything up to see if that fixes things.

In any event, I should be prepared to change out the fluid with a flush gear oil just to be on the safe side. Thanks for the advise.

Eric
83SC