How far would you drive a vehicle with little or no tranny oil in it? Is 3/4 of a mile (from home to the mechanic) too far? It’s 20 degrees outside and awfully cold to find the leak and the mecahnic wants it there tomorrow morning, no tow available until tomorrow night.
sorry . . manual transmission, no highway, suburb-type 10 mph trip.
While I might (very iffy) recommend that it be driven that far ONLY at very very slow speeds, this is a bit antsy to me.
The key here to me is why is it out of oil, is it known if there is any oil in it at all, how long has it been out, and are there any noises in the transmission before you posed the question?
If there is some oil in it then gear wear may not be an issue but mainshaft bearing wear could be.
OK4450 . . . it’s my old '79 dodge pickup . . . I saw a stain on the driveway under the tranny and checked the fill hole . . . can’t feel ANYTHING with my finger . . . my mechanic friend told me it would probably be OK if I drive 10 mph for less than a mile . . . I’m iffy about driving it at all. BTW . . . I don’t drive this old pickup more than 300 miles a year, just the the lumber yard and stuff. I checked it last Spring when I did the yearly maintenance, it was OK. I could drive it at idle . . . maybe 5 mph all the way, if that would be better.
My guess is 3/4 mile you be ok but why not put oil in it. Any kind wold be ok for this distance and it could be drained when it gets to mechanic
Another mile won’t likely damage anything. I doubt that the transmission is critically low or it would be whining in the lower gears and the synchronizers would not work too well.
I had a shop convert the front U-joint to a more modern type in a Jeep Wagoneer I had, so while it was in the shop I had them drop and fill the rear diff, it was winning in about 6 miles as they did not re-fill it. In your case there probably is some oil in the transmission (mine none at all), you just can’t reach it with your finger, I would not hesitate taking a 3/4 mile trip.
Put it in neutral and push it. Do you work for the mechanic, or does the mechanic work for you? You can’t find a towing company? Why not walk to the garage, buy transmission fluid, put it in, drive 3/4 mile and hope for the best?
3/4 of a mile? Get another person with a car and hook yours up to his rear bumper with rope and have him tow you with your car in neutral.
Is this some kind of homework assignment? I don’t see the problem here.
If it were my truck I’d try and squeeze some oil in it. The problem with driving it very low on oil is that the mainshaft bearings may not receive enough oil to lubricate them. If there’s any oil in it at all the gears may pick up enough to remain lubed but there may not be enough to keep the bearings oiled.
Maybe you could get one of those containers of gear oil with the nipple on the end. Stick a short length of rubber hose on it, remove the transmission fill hole plug, and weasel the container in between the trans and the tunnel. Tipping the container and a little squeeze or two may get most of that gear oil in there.
If the trans were only down a little then I’d say drive it slowly. It’s the unknown part that makes me hesitate.
We had a guy’s Subaru towed in several times due to a problem like this. The gear oil was down but not excessively low. In one case the trans simply locked up solid while he was sitting at a stop light. A teardown showed one of the mainshaft bearings was purple in color from heat and frozen solid.