What fluid to use in A833 manual transmission?

I ran an 80 OD833 in my 81 short bed that had ATF in it when I got it and I ran it like that for 10 years and it's it still works fine.

As mentioned, ATF tended to be recommended for cold weather and 90 weight or heavier gear lube for hot. Common GL5 gear lube is not friendly to syncros. For 3 season use, suggest SAE 90 GL4 gear lube (hard to find), better yet Redline MT90 gear lube or the Passon fluid. Redline MTL for cold weather.

It does not seem that current ATF formulations are friendly to MT applications and I think the 833 likes a heavier lube.

Resurrecting a 5 year old thread?

I only use gear oil in mine for over 30 years.
Don't fall into the ATF crowd They just haven't had one apart that ate the cluster because ATF doesn't lube well enough for your car. You run your car hard and it needs the correct lube. The guys that say it's OK either have low horsepower or don't whoop on them
Gus

Tractor gear oil, GL3 or GL4.

I'm a gear oil kinda guy myself, never felt good about ATF in a gear box.

I first saw ATF in Mopar stick trannys in 1963. It held up fine in my three speed stick drag cars and Muncie transmissions to.

I agree with Gus.I bought my 65 in 69.The 4speed had gear oil from the factory.Still has gearoil after all these years.Oh yeah it was a daily driver everday for at least 5 years.Ohio winters are cold and never a problem shifting.Rocky

80-90 weight gear oil

80-90 also recommend by liberty on my face plated 833

I have always run 90 weight in all my Chrysler factory stock four speeds since the early 70s. I have run both Nash and Liberty, really the same stuff with 90 weight also. The Chrysler manuals give all the same speeches about hot climate use 140 colder climate use 80-90 or ATF. If you use your car for what it is build for, 90 weight I would recommend. If it is a trailer queen it really does not matter but I still prefer 90 Weight anyways.

ATF worked fine in Texas heat behind a twin turbo 440. I ran an 18 spline 833 as well as an OD box.

Yep, and the same old anecdotal experiences.

I believe Mopar went to ATF in very cold climate's because of complaints about hard shifting when cold with gear oil in very cold places. In Md where I live it gets down to below 20F sometimes and up to 100 in the summer but most of the time its above 50 degrees. I have used 90 weight gear oil all my life here in Md and had no hard shifting when cold that was to bad. I used to drive my 4-speed 340 Dart on the street alot years ago when I had it. Ron

Yes...

First time I saw it was around 1980...

Ron I agree in Ohio it gets cold also.I drove the 65 everywhere for years in the winter.Never used anything but ger grease and shifted fine.Must work I still have the same trans after 46 years.Rocky

My '65 came form the factory with SAE 140, and that's what the FSM called for. It was very "firm" in very cold weather, but a pleasure when warmed up. It also suppressed a lot of the gear rattle that non-OD A833s are known for.

The FSM did allow for lighter oils in cold / very cold climates, and I did try SAE 90, but immediately went back to 140 - it was like a hot knife through butter, awesome shift quality.

Later FSMs did "lighten up".

I personally believe heavier lubricants reduce wear. Today I use SAE 85W140 multigrade.

Rick

Yes Rick you are right about the gear rattle in Neutral as I forgot about how bad that can get with the lighter fluid. Working in a Dodge dealer for 25 years I saw gear rattle alot in the newer front drive manual trans cars and they did it right from the factory. Ron

My Mom had a 65 6 cylinder 3 speed on the column Belvedere in Connecticut. Not sure what it originally came with, but my Dad put gear oil in it. Very hard to shift so put ATF in it and it solved the problem.

I flat towed my race car with that car for a while and kept breaking tranny gears - not sure if the ATF contributed or not.

"fluid compaction" "become very viscous" "dynamic seals"

Umm......OK.

I use 85-140 or straight 90 weight the same liberty trans and no issues for 44 years I do change fluid

Neutral Gear Rattle (NGR) is also a big issue in some modern cars that run ATF, that's why synthetics are popular in them....quiets the rattle but doesn't stiffen the shifting like heavy gears lubes would.

That is so true as we had so many different manual tranny fluids at the dealer that they called for in different models that Dodge made up a chart for the techs so we knew what each model trans called for when I left in 2009. And many were synthetic as you stated. Ron