Gear Oil Pump Recommendation

[Matt M PA]

I decided to change the PTU fluid in the SHO over the weekend. All it has is a fill plug and it's in a bit of a bad place. The fluid it uses is 75-140 gear oil. It seems with this type of change, we'll only get about a 1/3 of the fluid out....so I'll be doing this a few times until it's clean. The whole PTU only holds 18 ounces and I understand it's important to maintain this. The fluid that came out at 10,000 miles was nasty.

To remove the fluid, I used a small tube and a vacuum brake bleeder. Replacing the fluid was a problem. In the end, we wound up dropping a hose from the top and pouring the fluid into the hose. This meant a bit of a mess as the hose is 3' long. When the fluid starts to dribble out of the fill hole, there's still some fluid in the hose..causing some cleanup.

I tried putting a hose on the ****** of the new gear oil bottle, but couldn't get it to work due to the angle.

I have seen that I can get a small pump that goes on top of the bottle...but not sure if this will push the heavy oil. I know Mityvac makes an extractor/refiller that's about $100 but that seems like overkill for what I need.

So....do these bottle-top gear oil pumps work, or would anyone have a suggestion on a pump that may work?

 

[SkinnyG]

The bottle-top pumps work great with gear oil. They don't move a whole lot of fluid per pump though, so be prepared for a workout.

 

[Bondo]

The bottle-top pumps work great with gear oil. They don't move a whole lot of fluid per pump though, so be prepared for a workout.

Ayuh,.... Agreed,.... SoP for fillin' lower units on boat motors,.....

 

[DakotaMan]

I see several electric ones on amazon that I've considered for differential service; however, many of the affordable ones are 12V and I'm not super interested in taking a car battery out of that purpose.

 

[Matt M PA]

Thanks guys! Considering I'll only be pumping out something like 8 ounces...the workout may not be all that bad. And..it sure beats buying a $100 tool. Did I just say it beats buying a tool?

I used my Vacula brake bleeder to get the fluid out, which was great. If I didn't have that, I'd consider getting one of the vacuum extractors-fillers..

 

[nh_yota]

The hand pump works just fine if you're only using it a few times a year like I do. No reason to invest in anything fancy unless you're pumping gear oil every day.

 

[plinker]

Mityvac has very nice suction guns, 9oz & 1qt IIRC. They dont make a mess like normal ones. https://www.amazon.com/Mityvac-MVA6851-Fluid-Extractor/dp/B00MPQ8RBG/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=mityvac&qid=1552498654&s=gateway&sr=8-1

 

[ex-x-fire]

Make one of these. We have a couple at work, one for gear lube and another for atf.

 

[Steve_P]

The mityvac fiiler/sucker is great for sucking but it ***** for filling. Ha. It makes a mess when filling since fluid is essentially incompressible. Fill it even half way with oil then install the piston and what happens??? If you dont believe me you'll understand soon after you try it. Just use a pump unit. Your fingers will get a workout but you won't make a mess

 

[Skin]

I see several electric ones on amazon that I've considered for differential service; however, many of the affordable ones are 12V and I'm not super interested in taking a car battery out of that purpose.

The cheap ones are pretty much junk especially for a thick fluid like gear oil. You'll just burn the crappy pump up in no time.

 

[mikegt4]

I had to Google "PTU fluid in the SHO " just to see what a PTU is. It seems that changing the oil is quite a sore point with SHO owners.

I have used my Mityvac to pump fluid into a very difficult to fill transmission. It took a long time as the Mityvac reservoir is very small and that was with oil a lot lighter than 75-140 gear oil. I usually use the ubiquitous gear oil pump that screws onto the bottle. You can even use it in reverse to pump fluid out.

https://www.harborfreight.com/gear-oil-and-fluid-pump-61746.html

 

[plinker]

https://www.amazon.com/Private-Brand-Tools-PBT71196-Quick/dp/B073WL5Z3M/ref=asc_df_B073WL5Z3M/?tag=bingshoppinga-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid={creative}&hvpos={adposition}&hvnetw=o&hvrand={random}&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=e&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl={devicemodel}&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=&hvtargid=pla-4583932700751114&psc=1

I bought one of these a couple years ago and it works very well, better then you'd have thought. I did modify the hose by adding a piece of tube (brake line) and bent it in to an elbow to hook into fill plug holes. Also did similar on the suction side so it would draw from a 5gal bucket and similar container. It got quite a bit of use re-filling truck transmissions (about 4-5gal of gear oil). Used a M12 drill to power it.

 

[kctyphoon]

Cheap screw on hand pump top for quart bottles like these. You can buy those cheap HF style hand pump transfer pumps also, but the issue with those is you'll use 2 hands on the pump.. so no doubt the one hose will keep knocking the bottle of gear oil over, and the other side will keep coming out of the fill hole. This is the easiest way.. one and a half hands on the bottle, with 2 fingers pushing the pump top . It's not lightning fast but it's fast and easy enough. Better than many alternatives.

Slippery Pete Fluid Pump for Quart Bottles - Transfer Gear Oil, Transmission and Differential Fluid with This 5cc Hand Pump (2) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07HRYS3RG/?tag=atomicindus08-20

Or

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07HRYS3RG/?tag=atomicindus08-20

 

[ex-x-fire]

The mityvac fiiler/sucker is great for sucking but it ***** for filling. Ha. It makes a mess when filling since fluid is essentially incompressible. Fill it even half way with oil then install the piston and what happens??? If you dont believe me you'll understand soon after you try it. Just use a pump unit. Your fingers will get a workout but you won't make a mess

The garden sprayer works great, you don't compress any fluid. All it does is add enough positive pressure inside to push the fluid out. It works even better if you use a larger diameter hose then in the video.

 

[kctyphoon]

The only bad thing about using a dedicated dispenser - is you’ll probably wanna clean it out afterwards.. its just not worth the hassle IMO.. the time you’ll waste cleaning will take you a lot longer than just using those quart bottle screw on pumps..

Ive used them before.. first time i tried a manual transfer pump - and like i said, headache.. second time was the quart bottle pump. Its so easy, theses no mess, they are really cheap - its just worth it if you’re just maintaining your own cars.

 

[ex-x-fire]

The only bad thing about using a dedicated dispenser - is you’ll probably wanna clean it out afterwards.. its just not worth the hassle IMO.. the time you’ll waste cleaning will take you a lot longer than just using those quart bottle screw on pumps..

Ive used them before.. first time i tried a manual transfer pump - and like i said, headache.. second time was the quart bottle pump. Its so easy, theses no mess, they are really cheap - its just worth it if you’re just maintaining your own cars.

I would worry about cleaning it out, especially if your going to use it to service a specific car that you own. You can get them at wally word for 5 bucks, so buy a couple. Those screw on pumps, which don't screw on anything correctly, are the hassle.

 

[Matt M PA]

I picked up one of the bottle top ones at Walmart last night...was $4.97.

The SHO PTUs get a lot of talk on the forums, etc. Ford seems to think it's a lifetime fluid, but I can report that mine at 10,000 miles was nasty. The SHO is available with a "performance package" that includes lower final gear ratio, slightly stiffer suspension, summer only tires, alcantara covered steering wheel...and a PTU with a drain plug. (But, you can't get the tech stuff with the performance package...so my car is a non PP) For some reason, they move an 02 sensor so close that you can't get to the fill plug.

Next time the car is on the lift, I'll give the pump a try and see how much more gear oil I can swap out. I understand it'll take a few tries. To the good...it ought to be easy now.

 

[rustbucket5]

saw a trick one time, never tried it yet but what the person did was take a bottle with a tight fitting lid, drill the lid to just under the tubing your gonna use so its a really tight fit, insert tubing to under the fluid level. then make a second small hole near the top of the bottle and use a rubber tip blow gun to slightly pressurize the container. careful lol

 

[LA1Z24]

These ptu's fail at super low mileage. No core charge, and they are fairly cheap for what they are. Failure in inevitable. I am an independent and have changed many of these. Same part for most fwd bias cars and suvs in the Ford lineup. It's sandwiched against the firewall, engine block, and catalytic converter. The fluid degrades in about 15k miles. Complete failure as early as 30k.

Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk

 

[clubairth]

Fellow Ecoboost owner here! 2013 Lincoln MKS a real sleeper. AWD, 365HP and 350 TQ stock is pretty good.

Yes I change PTU, RDU and transmission fluid at least every 10K miles. Most of the time do it at the oil change of 7500 miles. There is not much fluid in the PTU and I have changed mine about 4 times since we got the car. I have a lift so it's just part of my routine maintenance. Still is dark but looks much better than when I started. We got the car at 28K miles.

I also just use the Mityvac to extract fluid and a screw on pump to fill.
Would like to find a powered pump because I am pumping out a lot these days as nothing much comes with drain plugs or any consideration for maintenance.
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[redmondjp]

saw a trick one time, never tried it yet but what the person did was take a bottle with a tight fitting lid, drill the lid to just under the tubing your gonna use so its a really tight fit, insert tubing to under the fluid level. then make a second small hole near the top of the bottle and use a rubber tip blow gun to slightly pressurize the container. careful lol

That's not a bad idea - one way that I've done this, for example, when I air-test turbocharger wastegate operators, is to take one of my portable air tanks and fill it to, say 15psi, or whatever the maximum pressure that I want to apply. This would work well for your idea, except that I would probably only go to 5-8psi maximum.

 

[FakeNewsRealHP]

Private brand tools(Australia) used to sell a ratchet pump that was also rebranded blue point pn#70910. I use my m12 3/8 fuel ratchet with it at least 5 times a week. Now blue point only sells seal kits and PBT Stopped them with the ratchet hook and now have a power drill version(same pump it seems like just different attachment)

Gm 6l80e in car applications require you to get the trans to 150deg and than fish a plug out of the hole that’s used for dipsticks on truck applications and fill there, and the “drain” plug in the pan is now just a fluid level plug so you pump fluid in until it pours out while your hair catches fire from the exhaust and your arm melts trying.