Reply to "Gear oil level and change- New owner"

I would avoid intentionally overfilling, and your dipstick is a valuable help there. I only mentioned it to not make it sound as if the amount was absolute. Pushbutton Panteras and 'Gooses got a dipstick as well as yours. I added a right-angle metric fitting to our stock early 'Fill' port, then ran a 6" long hose up level with the trans case top and added a cap with a weld-rod dipstick. Sitting for a few hours, the lube eventually finds its level & can be neatly topped up if needed. My ZF also got a temp gauge sender installed, and a 450-mile run to 'Vegas one year at 'somewhat illegal' speeds only brought the gear-lube temp up to 188F- barely enough to drive off condensation. Silver State runners tell me their ZFs get 'hotter' than that but no real numbers mentioned.

So excess lube will expand under heat and if there's a substantial extra amount, some may come out of the upper vent & make a mess of the whole rear of the car, but shouldn't otherwise cause much problem.....

Note the '80-up 'M-1' ZF variant has a different diff-case (reinforced over the ring gear & heavier; also known as the Super-ZF), and if it also has the M-1 trans, all the shafts, bearings and maybe the seals are larger in an M-1 than a '71-'76 ZF. The various sections (diff-case, trans-case and end-cap) can be interchanged but not the separate gears, as I understand it. Road-racers love the Super-ZF but Jr Wilson successfully ran a stock '73 ZF behind his 900-horse Boss-429 monster in dozens of Silver State races without breakage.

Reason I mention this is, I don't know what lube volume BMW or ZF specified in that transaxle variant. Might be a little more, or less; Lloyd would know, or whoever flipped the ring gear for you. Mangusta ZFs take less lube than the Pantera, but those cases are physically smaller & lighter. The 'Fendt Roller'- a paving machine with a ZF, has an external 1 qt(?) reservoir that one Swedish Pantera owner added to his car.