# Toro auger gearbox oil 85w95? What are you using?



## ToroM (Oct 2, 2020)

I can't use #00 grease because I can't disassemble the unit it's rusted together.

It's pretty hard to find 85w95 oil Amazon only had 1 or 2 options that are reasonably priced.

Nothing local? Is there another name for it?


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## Oneacer (Jan 3, 2011)

"00" grease is actually sold in a quart bottle, and will flow like a thick gear oil.

I get it at Tractor Supply.


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## 140278 (Aug 27, 2020)

possibly canadian tire or tractor supply if you have it up there


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## jerryvvv (Apr 23, 2020)

you can squirt 00 grease in any hole that you can put gear oil into

00 grease is more of an oil than a grease, it flows very well

but to answer your question.....canadian tire sells 80/90 gear oil


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## paulm12 (May 22, 2015)

You should use grease if that is what the manual calls for. What model snowblower? and year

tx


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## ToroM (Oct 2, 2020)

5. If the oil level is low, add GL-5 or GL-6, SAE 85-95
EP transmission oil to the gearbox until the point of
overflow.
Note: Do not use synthetic oil.

This is what the manual states. It says NO synthetic which really complicates things as everything i've found is synthetic.

I've already tried injecting 00 grease into the hole it doesn't actually go in because the air has no way out. You also have no way to know how much grease you have put in. It doesn't flow like oil. You have to disassemble the gearbox and "pack" the housing with the grease and then reassemble.

I'm going to go with 80w90 instead. I'll have to keep it topped up until I can do a complete rebuild with new parts. COVID19 has screwed up supply chains.


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## 140413 (Sep 14, 2020)

*Castrol 80/90 Non Syn Gear Oil. The Seals Will Not Hold The Syn Stuff.







*


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## asavage (Dec 20, 2021)

140413 said:


> Castrol 80/90 Non Syn Gear Oil. The Seals Will Not Hold The Syn Stuff.


Ugh. When will this myth die? 

Abnormal seal leakage when using synthetic lubricants historically was an issue . . . 50 years ago. When some seals were still fabricated of dead cow skin. When non-leather seals were constructed of man-made materials whose performance relied upon the lubricant having a significant percentage of light fractions, which kept the seal materials pliable. And with seal systems that actually required the lubricant to carry some debris to plug up wear spots in the seal system!

Synthetic lubricants have very little to no light fractions*. The base oil is "synthesized" so all the molecules are the same; this is in contrast to lubricants derived directly from mineral stocks, which might contain light, medium, heavy and extra heavy (long) molecules as well as other assorted debris that's hard to remove using a distillation tower, and "refining" the base stock to achieve any particular viscosity involved pulling different fractions together for a blend with those aggregate characteristics. Because the base stock (API Group IV or higher) of synthetics is of uniform character, it's much more predictable in terms of performance and more importantly degradation, because it's more or less all one thing (the base stock, not the additive package).

Modern seals -- composed primarily of elastomers these days -- do not require light fractions to keep them pliable. 

If you're working with vintage equipment or NOS seals from the 70's or earlier, yes -- modern synthetic lubricants should be avoided. Otherwise, synthetic lubricants are fine with seals.

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I ran across this thread, because I have a non-leaking auger gearcase that was built in 1985 in my 38150. It's out of the machine to repair a damaged input/impeller shaft -- more on that later -- so I've got it draining over a funnel and catch jug. It looks like around 3 ounces have drained out. It's obviously (by smell) gear oil. It looks fine -- the rest of the machine is a mess. I'm looking for replacement lubricant, and I'm investigating buying NLGI #00 (semi-fluid grease) in place of the presumed GL-4 but am having a hard time with either availability (high prices!) or quantity (AMSOil GFS would be my first choice, but it's only sold in a minimum $400 quantity; I'm currently looking for someone who has a pail of it who will sell me a half-quart or whatever). The search engine brought me here.

Lubriplate has MAG-00 in quarts (L0186-013), but ordering online, after shipping (expensive!!) and tax all sources come to $40 and up, which seems a bit excessive. I'm still looking. The easy thing to buy would be AMSOil MTG Manual Transmission & Transaxle Gear Lube 75W-90, but of course it's out of stock online. If I have to chase lubricant, I may as well get what I want. Obviously, I'm overthinking this: this gearcase is just not all that sensitive to which lubricant is installed, only that it has some.



ToroM said:


> 5. If the oil level is low, *add GL-5 *or GL-6, SAE 85-95 . . .


GL-5 contains an EP additive that is sulfur-based and will corrode yellow metals (brass, bronze, copper, etc.). My auger gears are brass-alloy, so no GL-5 for it. Please do not put GL-5 into your gearcase unless you're certain it does not contain yellow metals . . . which leads me to this:



ToroM said:


> Note: Do not use synthetic oil. This is what the manual states. It says NO synthetic . . .


We all seen that the Toro documentation does not get accurately/completely updated except when it suits them. I am going to assume -- based on my knowledge of the lubricants industry circa 2002 -- that if ToroM's manual advised to use non-synthetic only, that's a holdover from the Bad Times of the 70s when Mobil pushed Mobil 1 and its cousins hard via advertising and a lot of people put it in 1960s and '70s equipment and it pissed on the floors of a lot of people and gave synthetics a bad rep.

It costs Toro nothing to not update their docs, until the gearcase gets value-engineered in the next product development cycle, and they remove 1/4" off the gear width or lighten the thrust bearings or whatever cost-saving measure gets implemented to prop the bottom line, and then suddenly non-syn won't support the warranty period anymore, and the docs will magically get updated!

My cynical view of how this works.


* "Synthetic" means different things in different contexts (ref. Castrol vs. Mobil in the "synthetic wars" in the 80s), and mid-range synthetic lubes are created by severe hydrocracking (adding hydrogen under high temp/pressure) to complete/build-up lesser molecules. This is a lot cheaper than the other way (AMSOil, Royal Purple, etc.). Castrol won the "right" to advertise it's severely hydrocracked product as "synthetic". Others followed. That doesn't mean that those base stocks aren't a lot better than what came before, only that there are tiers above that available.


[Next thread, I'll bust the myth about leaving your lead-acid battery on concrete will cause it to go flat  That's another one that won't die. ]


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