Author Topic: Gear Case oil  (Read 2141 times)

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Flying Frenchman

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Gear Case oil
« on: December 18, 2017, 07:21:15 PM »
Does anyone know what kind of oil to use in the gear case?  The one that drives the oil pump?  The one manual I have shows 10W 30 non foaming, and the other shows 10W40

rminier

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Re: Gear Case oil
« Reply #1 on: December 19, 2017, 06:03:53 AM »
 My original factory shop manual specifies Shell 10W-30 non-foaming motor oil.
When I read that for the 1st time 35 years ago, I was about floored.
In an otherwise extremely well written manual, this made me wonder if a Shell sales rep took the Kawasaki engineers out for dinner in return to get this "plug" in for their product... ;)
 And non-foaming??? I have been tempted to go to my local NAPA auto store and ask the kid behind the counter for a quart of their very best FOAMING motor oil....he would look at me like I lost my mind.... ::) :P
 I have always used whatever 10W-30 motor oil I might have....I think it is way more important that this gear case gets flushed and refilled with clean oil, rather than worrying too much about brand. If someone wanted, they could use a full synthetic like Mobil 1, but I think the regular stuff is fine.
  I also have some John Deere manuals. The '80 through '84 JD Liquifire used a virtually identical engine as the Kawi Invader.
John Deere specifies 5W-30 motor oil in the gearcase.
 I suppose if I lived near the Arctic Circle and rode around in extremely cold temps, I might use the 5W-30, but I have used regular 10W-30 for many years.   8)
75 SnoJet Astro SS, 79 Kawasaki Invader 440 (two of them), 81 Scorpion Sidewinder, 82 Blizzard 9500, 83 Yamaha Vmax 540, 97 MXZ 670....and holding...for now.

kawhead

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Re: Gear Case oil
« Reply #2 on: December 19, 2017, 09:54:09 PM »
imo...they were looking for some higher quality oil because of the limited volume