Headstock oil problem

[Firstram]

A friend of mine serviced his 1440 Jet a few months ago with DTE heavy medium. The unknown old oil was was nasty but free of debris. The lathe has been slowly getting harder and harder to shift. He pulled the cover yesterday to find everything covered in orange sticky varnish, everything was clean when he refilled it.

He will experiment with Diesel and ATF to see what dissolves this slime. Any suggestions?


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[RaisedByWolves]

It was drained clean or rinsed clean?

If it was only drained it might be an interaction between the two oils.

 

[Firstram]

He drained and refilled, who knew it would react with whatever carp was in there. He got it cleaned out by dumping the oil, brushing everything and rinsing the sump out with diesel. He then filled it with 50:50 diesel and 10-W40, running it at low speeds seemed to dissolve the varnish, everything shifts smoothly now. He plans to do one more round of this and switch back to the proper DTE oil.

I'm wondering if the broker dumped the equivalent of sawdust into the gear box to keep it quiet. He will let me know if it is louder when he's back to regular oil.

 

[pontiac428]

Crankcase flush is a cheap way to get diesel and distillates in a bottle, but it's nothing more. Diesel, petroleum disillates, and naptha are nearly the same thing.

The synthetic motor flush is a lot cleaner, it's distillates/naptha but has ZDDP to lubricate while you are performing the flush. It also has a glycol ether added, similar to ATF or brake fluid, as a cleaner and mild surfactant.

ATF provides glycol ether, detergents, and base oil, so the ATF/diesel plan is a good one too.

I have never seen that type of residue, but sometimes in gear boxes a little water vapor can accumulate and emulsify spots of oil here and there. After emulsification, the process may reverse if temps and time drive the moisture away. So it may be somehwere in betweeen a condition like that.