Reply to "Mangusta ZF Dipstick?"

Guson,

When using the rear cover angled plug for a fill level (as recommended by Lloyd) 3.5 pints pretty much does the job.

However, to answer your concern, think of where the centerline of the mainshaft is when in the Goose, and when in the Pantera. When in the Mangusta, the centerline is very low in the case, and 3.5 pints would partially submerge the mainshaft and all it's gears. The spinning action of the mainshaft throws oil around to the ring gear etc just fine. Trying to fit another 4 pints of oil in there would totally submerge it and would cause all sorts of hell! Not to mention possibly foaming the oil, and pushing oil out of every seal in the trans! Bad shifting would be a symptom of too much oil.

Now, flip it over in a Pantera, and you have the large cavity in the main case, where only the ring gear is dipped in oil and perhaps the bottom of the mainshaft & gears. This splashes the oil onto the counter gear etc but the bottom line, is that the mainshaft is still not submerged totally.

In US car trannies, Ford toploader or Borg Warner T-10 for two, the full level only covers the counter gear and part of the main shaft assy gears, but is still below the seal level of the main shaft.

It would only stand to reason that this same theory of "not so much oil that it is above the centerline of the mainshaft" would still apply to the ZF no matter which way it is oriented, as noted by the two dramatically different "fill" capacities!

That's my two cents anyway!

Steve

PS: The Goose dipstick is (when equipped) a part of the vent that is located on the top cover, and NOT on the side as is shown in my picture at the top! I think that these Pantera type dipsticks just got installed..... and later on, someone figured out that they shouldn't be there at all on ZF's that are mounted properly! (...and not upside down!)