Transmission Time..

[Matt]

Transmission is gone in my truck, so it's coming out. while it's out i'm going to do the clutch and take care of a rear structure leak, I have a few questions i'd like to throw to the panel and get some feedback.

Clutches: looking at getting an Eaton easy pedal 2250ftlb. any experiences with other brands? what about the lipe clutch?

Trans Fluid: I'm pretty sold on running 75-90 as per a few folks on this site, I haul B trains (140000lbs) in Canada. and it seemed that the 75-90 was a better choice for that over 50WT. Just want to make sure that's a good idea.

Trans. Cooler: I has the water to oil transmission cooler on it. The previous owner had it go and contaminate the trans with coolant. he assured me it was small and the transmission had been checked..I learned an expensive lesson about that.
My go-to mechanical advice guy figures the contamination is what set up the trans. for failure and it was only a matter of time and he recommends swapping it for an air cooler to prevent it from happening again as he's seen many transmissions wiped out from coolant damage, any thoughts on this? good? bad? where should it be mounted?

If you have some best practices advice for when something like this is getting done i'd like to hear it too.

[Pigpen 2869]

Lipe clutch have had 2 and bad luck with both. Gear oil yes Fuller used to say it was ok to use if it met the Mt-1 spec then they came out with a new spec for 50 wt. go figgure. Air cooler yes you wont hafta worry about coolant coming out of the breather on your transmission.

[Brock]

I'm running a Lipe clutch on my pete running trains. Only had it a few months though but I absolutely love the clutch engagement. Real hard to press in, I now know why they call them easy pedals haha.

My prostar clutch is on ita last leg and when it does I'm going with a easy pedals with a pre damper. Less vibration they say.

[Unilevers]

honestly ive used tone of the eatons, they work well.

any serious truck i put lipe's in. most ones get the 3000lb one but ive also used the 5000 and 7000lb. they also make a 9000lb.

[Hammerhead]

Coolant intrusion into the transmission...hmmm, seems I know somethin 'bout this one. Oh yeah, the material the synchro is made from in the hi/low range splitter absorbs that shi#t and self destructs...where was it I heard that from again?
Oh yeah, the fuckin KA-BOOM under my floor!
I loathe liquid cooled trannies. I hope wasn't unclear about this.
Air cool that bitch with a good quality 75W90 synthetic, and change it at 200k miles max pulling over 120,000lbs gross and your tranny will outlast any liquid cooled POS when that cooler fails. You did note I said when, not IF right?
Oh, and don't talk to Eaton about it, they'll tell you for your engine/tranny torque rating if it's not liquid cooled, it will run too hot and you'll void your blah blah blah.
If your concerned about it, get a small hydraulic oil cooler with a thermostatically controlled 12V fan on it...I doubt it will ever cut in.

If you're pulling weight, you won't get the life from an easy-pedal clutch that a freight hauler will. The easy-pedal is much kinder to your leg if you are in a lot of traffic, but for Matt who pulls grain B-trains in WC, it's just an option. You don't slip your clutch much doing your type of work. Bed and winch truck guys love the grip/engagement and easy adjustment of Lipe's, but their left legs take a royal @$$ kicking slipping them all day. What you do, clutch wise, is not much different from what I do. I will be putting a Lipe in when I drop my tranny & flywheel to do my flywheel housing. IMHO an easy-pedal lets us slip our clutches more, and too often, overworking and destroying the center discs around the springs. Take Uni's word, for serious trucks he goes with the Lipe's. It's not just power that makes a truck "serious", it can also be the GVW the powertrain is subjected to.

[uncleal13]

Hi Matt, AL here truck 159.
Two trucks ago I had an air cooled transmission. It was fine on the prairies, but pulling the mountains it got way too hot. I saw well over 300 degrees many times climbing the Coq and Kickinghorse. It needed vehicle speed to get sufficient cooling, which you can't get going 25 kph up a mountain.
Although mine had the cooler mounted above the tranny, if it was up front it would be better, or a fan that could be turned on.

[Roysbigtoys]

Not hijack this thread....... but my truck also experienced coolant in the trany oil from the stupid cooler. I was noticing a sporadic shudder/vibration under acceleration. While checking my truck out I noticed a milky substance coming from the top of transmission.......un-screwed the fill plug and it came shooting out. The trany was warm, so I drained it and flushed. ( I checked with Roadranger.....they recommend flushing with Dexron atf.) I probably put at least 2-3 thousand miles on the truck before i figured out my problem. My vibration did go away.
Anyone have any idea what kind of damage might have been done to my trany? Do I drive it till it fails?
The truck pulls a lowboy and end dump with for my excavating company. The truck rarely goes more than 45 minutes in one direction.....should I put an air cooler back it or run without a cooler?

[Matt]

What's the price difference between a Lipe and an eaton clutch? Who sells the Lipe in Canada? With the air cooler..Where's the best place to mount it? I had a freightliner classic with an air cooler mounted between the frame rails directly below the back sleeper wall and pulling 80,000 in southwestern us and in Mountain areas had no problem with heat. My concern is that now I have a T660 with full fairings, will I get enough airflow under the cab to keep that cooler working.

[Rawze]

My cooler is mounted in front of my radiator on my prostar.