Differential Oils

Okay, now I've drained the front and rear diff oils on my KQ. Now, on my 98 500 the manual says to use GL-5 hypoid oil so that's what I used in it and put in my KQ. I get to thinking I'd better double check (mind you I haven't driven this thing yet) and I see the front diff does take the GL-5 but the rear says to use a Mobilfluid 424 or equivalent.

So I think no big deal, I can drain it and I'll look up to see what's compatible.

I can't find what I need to know. I do believe that the Mobil fluid 424 is a GL-4 80W but I'm not sure. I can't confirm that. Mobil's website does give me that but it also says it's suitable for commercial transmissions requiring Type A (suffix A), Dextron and Type F fluids. That's what's really confusing.

Comparing specs and I see it seems to be a hydraulic oil which is much thinner than an 80W. So my question becomes, what are you guys using, or are all of you still on the factory oil?

I'm thinking the rear is going to take a 75W90 GL-4 but the heck if I know. I have read that you should not use a GL-5 oil in a GL-4 rated carrier. They are NOT compatible and only bad things happen.

So lets go a little deeper on this. The oil I've used on my 500, and what I'll finish filling the front diff with, is Cenex MP Gear Lube LINK HERE and they recommend, not only GL-5 but say "many applications for API Service GL-2, 3 & 4"

Comparing the properties of the two oils, the Cenex 80w90 is definately a higher viscosity @ 40*C and 100*C. Mobil fluid 424 LINK

If you look at Cenex Matron GL LINK you will notice their viscosity @40*C is 122, lower than the 141 of the MP Gear Lube but it is higher @100*C (16.6 vs 14.4) which the 424's are 55 @ 40*C and 9.3 @ 100*C

Now, to create more confusion, googling specs for the oils and anything I can think of to eliminate the confusion, only creates more. Which leads me to Amsoil's website and they have a Manual Transmission and Transaxle Gear Lube 75W90 GL-4 Oil LINK which is closer to Mobil 424's specs.

If I look up oils to match up close the the 424's Viscosities then I have seen a 5W30 oil almost match those #'s.

If you read the product description for 424, it's a multipurpose tractor lubricant designed for transmission and hyrdraulic fluids. Those oil's I'm familiar with using on the farm are very similar to a "lighter" oil.

So there now, does that clear anything up? If I could find any 424 oil locally, I'd just use it. There's literally tons of gear oil in my farming community but I'm just not sure what is equivalent to the specs required by Suzuki.

Josh, I'm sure you've at least changed your diff's once, what did you refill them with?

Sorry for the novel, but geez, this has been a little interesting to say the least and I'm not a fluids expert.

Holy long thread batman lol.


I change mine out about every other oil change. I just use the suzuki diff fluid. For the rear you just need to make sure that its compatible with a wet brake.

Here is a list, thanks to nyrocatv

REAR DIFFERENTIAL FLUIDS
Double check any fluid that you are interested in. Make sure it is WET BRAKE compatible.
I AM PRETTY SURE THAT ALL THE OILS STATED BELOW CAN BE USED FOR THE KING QUADS REAR END as stated on the AMSOIL site.

AMSOIL Synthetic Tractor Hydraulic/Transmission Oil is a direct replacement for any of these oils.

ARCO Tractor Fluid
BP Tractran UTH
Case Hytran
Chevron Torque Fluid
Chevron Tractor Hydraulic Fluid
Conoco Power-Tran III Fluid
Conoco Farm Master
Gulf Universal Tractor Fluid;
John Deere Hy-Gard
Kendall HYKEN 052
Kubota Super UDT
Lubrication Engineers 7500
Lubriplate UTF C-4
New Holland, Ford M2C134-D & FNHA-2C-200.00 &201
Mobilfluid 300, 350, and 424 ( Suzuki Owners Manual recommends a 424)
Pennzoil HYDRA-TRANS
Phillips HG Fluid
Royal Purple SYN-Tractor III
Shell Donax TD

HighlandKing, thanks for the info.

Front fluids. Thanks again to nyroc for the info

FRONT DIFFERENTIAL FLUIDS



FRONT

As long as the oil is rated a GL-5 SAE90 you should be good to go. Some oils are rated for both GL-4 and GL-5.

ACDelco... Hypoid 80W90
Amsoil...FGR SYN 75W90
Amsoil..SGL SYN 80W90
Aral... Gear Oil EP 90
Castrol... Hypoy 90 EP
Caltex... Valor 100
Chemoleums... Universal Thubol 90
Elf...Gearelf-4 90EP
Esso... Esso lUbe XD
Fina... Pontonic NE 90
Gulf EP... Gear Oil 90
Honda ...Hypoid 80W90
HPC... Gear Oil EP 90
Idemitsu... Auto Gear-S 90EP
IOC... Servo Gear HP 90
Maxima... Hypoid Gear Oil 80W90
Motul... All Gear 80W90
Mobil... Mobilube GX - 90
Pennzoil... Gear Plus 90
Quaker State...HPGL 80W90
Royal Purple... Max Gear SYN 75W90
Silkolene...SYN5 75W90
Shell... Spirax EP 90
Schaeffers... 267 Gear Oil 80W90
Slick 50... Gear Lube Formula 80W90
Torco... RGO 80W90
Total... EP 80W90
Tata... BP BP Gear Oil 90EP
Valvoline... Geargard 80W90
Veedol... Multigear 90

FYI, here's what I did.

Front differential: Cenex MP Gear Lube (80W90)

Rear differential: CaseIH Hytrans Ultra

Long as the rear fluid is compatible with a wet brake system you will be fine :)

man just throw some 80w 90 gear lube in it fill it up just about to the axle and you will be good to go

Sounds like the rear diff takes a hydraulic type oil not the heavy diff fluid like 80/90 weight.