@MikeInNH. I was on an off campus adventure in my college years and my classmate had a 1950 Pontiac. About 20 miles from campus, a connecting rod started knocking. We pulled into a service station and the proprietor drained the oil and filled the crankcase with hypoid 90 weight intended for manual transmissions and differentials. He gave us a push to start the engine and we made it back to campus.
My question: Did we fill the crankcase with oil or fluid?
That’s oil…90W doesn’t FLOW very well… 
@MikeInNH. You are right. The old flathead inline 8 in the 1950 Pontiac didn’t have hydraulic tappets. I think we obtained a maximum speed with 90 weight oil in the crankcase of 20.mph. Therefore, we didn’t need fluid for the lifters.
The next morning after we got back to campus, my friend called a wrecking yard and the old Pontiac was hauled away.
Ford also use’s ATF in the manuat transmission’s as I found out the hard way when I wrecked my manual transmission.
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@Renegade… they surely do…
Modern combines have grown so high tech and expensive that most farmers no longer own the combines that harvest their crops. You have to keep these million dollar machines busy in order to make the payments so combine crews follow the harvest from one farm to another.
Of course, small time farmers who do it for a hobby can still harvest their own crops with an old 10 ft wide fixer upper that’s priced like a kitten, free to a good home, or yours if you haul it off.
I read a story a few years ago about one combine owner that started in Minnesota harvesting crops then drove his combine south on a lowboy trailer, progressively harvesting until he ended the season in Texas.
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I may be wrong it would not be the first time but I think you got that backward’s. They start in the south and move north with the season’s.
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Years ago there was a movie with Debra Winger as an FBI undercover as a “combine girl” driving combines during wheat harvest. I thought that might be a fun job, but probable very boring.
Combines have come a long way since the one we towed behind our Ford tractor.
You may be right. I actually wrote it that way first, then changed it. It seemed like the growing season would end in the north first. It depends on crops, of course, and there could be more than one crop in Texas. It’s been a while since I read the article, and I don’t have much experience in rural life.
The way it work’s is warm weather come’s to the south first to put crop’s in the ground the farther north the later crop’s go in the ground therefore harvest start’s first in the south and move’s north for example where I live we start our garden right after the last frost and have some thing’s ready for harvest by the time you are getting ready to start your garden’
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It’s not recommended for anyone with allergies or hay fever. For me, oats were the worst, I felt like I had the flu. Wheat didn’t bother me in the least. Other people claim maize (milo) is the absolutely most itchy thing you can harvest, but surprisingly it didn’t bother me. It’s probably not so bad in modern machines with air conditioned closed cabs. Upwind, you leave the cloud of dust behind but downwind that cloud of dust follows you, like the personal cloud of Al Capp’s jinx character, Joe Btfsplk.
Or cream. An egg cream is strictly milk, seltzer, and Fox’s UBet chocolate syrup.
So there you go. Why is it called transmission fluid & not oil?
Because combine harvesters, hay fever, potatoes & egg.
This will be the first time I have ever quoted myself but… seems to be the time to do so. I will also quote Mr @texases as well because it sure sounds good to me…
I’d be willing to bet that the truth lies somewhere between both of these quotes. However if one chooses to take away
I guess I would just say… To each his own. I know what my takeaway would be…
Like when they put a picture of a motorcycle on a quart of oil, suddenly it’s double the price. No telling what that oil would cost if they put a picture of an airplane on it.
A 12-pack of Aero-Shell 15W-50 costs $108 on Amazon.
In the beginning (1940) when GM introduced the first fully automatic transmission (hydramatic), it was filled with 20 weight engine oil. Oldsmobile dealers started sending in lots of warranty claims to the factory. GM engineers traced many of the failures to the oil, specifically lack of lubricity due to heat breakdown of the oil and foaming of the oil. They. They then added anti oxidants and anti foaming agents and Type A transmission fluid was born.
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