Motor oil corrosive?

Would motorcycle oil such as valvoline 10W40 be corosive if I stuck it in the rear diff? I will not be riding the bike right now, but dont want to leave it empty.
Money tight right now so I cant get any lube at the moment.
Thanks! 8)

 

Not corrosive but remnants of it could "pollute" the correct oil. Put the plug back in and fill it as soon as you can.

 

Well I was gonna flush it with diesel when I got ready to put the good stuff in.

 

Went ahead and got some diesel and flushed the gl-5 out of my rear diff, filled, spun thewheel to disperse the fuel throughout the gears and emptied 4 times, I threw some of the valvoline MC oil in there to keep it lubed till I can get some gl-4, BTW I am not driving the bike any.
Carry on

 

Do not use diesel. Diesel fuel is corrosive to aluminum parts and will swell any seal it comes into contact with. It will also strip all the oil and greas from the rear bearings with in the drive gears. Also if as much as a teasspoon of diesel is left inside of the gear drive, when it gets mixed in with the gear oil and heats up it will prevent the gear oil from bonding to the sufaces of the gears.

Why are cleaning the rear drive unit out anyway? Unless it is contaminated with particulates, you are wasting your time. Besides to properly clean this required a complete tear down of the rear gear drive and a solvent wash tank.

Rear differential fluid should be 75/90w. I recommend you use Bel-Ray case saver 75/90w or any premium gear oil as long as it is not 140w. 140w is too thick and viscous unless you ride in 90 deg plus weather all the time. Regular motor oil does not have enough visocity to lubricate the shaft drive gears and you will run risk of galling the rear bearing housed within the gear drive from lack of lubrication especially after the gear drive gets hot from riding.

Leaving the rear gear drive empty will not harm anything, but be careful. If you forget it is empty and go for a ride, you will not get far before the rear locks up on you and damage the drive gears.

Top off it off just to be safe. Hope this helps.

Dodger 62

 

I flushed it cause i had put gl-5 diff lube in it, and that is corosive to yellow metals, the manual calls for gl-4. My final drive has a sticker on it to use 80w.
This company Has aluminum engines and gear boxes, I dont think after searching aluminum is corroded by diesel, I havent found any.

http://www.yachtboutique.com/BentleyMarine/Engines.htm

 

From what I understand, not all GL-5 lubricants (for that matter, almost none of the modern ones) contain activated sulfates, which is the additive that corrodes brass components.

Regular DIESEL, on the other hand, DOES contain sulfur-based additives, which DO corrode some metals.

There was probably no urgent need to change your diff lube... I don't know what would be a good chemical to flush it at this point, but I agree with Dodger.. Diesel is the last thing you want in there.

 

I havent found anything that says diesel corrodes metals. Anyone have any facts to back this idea up?
Anyhow I flushed the diesel out with MC oil. I could see if one left diesel fuel in there but using it as a wash, it shouldnt hurt anything.

 

http://www.uiweb.uidaho.edu/bioenergy/B ... ion/03.pdf

Here you go. scroll down a bit... There are a couple of paragraphs on corrosion.

 

It says its corrosive if water is introduced to the fuel....

 

Sorry to say you are wrong about the diesel. I'm an SAE eng. and know this first hand. And after many years of bike restoration and rebuilds. I know that diesel turns alkelitic when it makes contact with older Japanese grades of cast and some billet aluminums. Japanese grade aluminums are not the same as here in the US and contain higher amounts of sulfates and impurities which react to diesel.

Your comment regarding the gear boxes you work is only true to US grade aluminums. Also, GL4 vs GL5 The only difference between them are the friction inhibutors and the different base oils used. Your manuasl were written back in the 80's when base oils selections and friction inhibitors were limited and the sulfer and ash content in most oils wash extremely high. A bad comination for totays standards.

As you have probably seen 80w in not readily available anymore. Most oil companies now produce multi-viscosity oils over single based oils. You should research API and SAE databases on viable substitutes for the oil requirement for older bikes and cars. 80w GL4 gear oil is a throw back to these older stanadrds and the formula has not changed since your bike was new.

You can use today's modern oils in your bike with no ill affects or risk of danage to internal compnents. If you rely on the owners manual or haynes, you are acting on information that is well over 30 -40 years old. These bike share a common heritige with the XS model that dates back into the early 70's your lubrication requirements are also based on the same old outed information. So, bottom line in you can follow the manual if you want to, but why?

So good luck to you.

 

and....

 

I'm not a fuels scientist but I have access to one, I'll put the question to him today. I've used diesel to flush engines with no issues but bear in mind that I did not leave it in there. I flushed it out with another oil change after I drained the diesel. I then flushed that again the next day. I don't suppose that should cause any problems.
I would not fill up your stored diff with engine oil, use the GL Hypoid oil.
As mentioned, not all GL-5 has the phosphates that you need to worry about so do your homework. Since I'm anal and use the stash of GL-4 that I socked away years ago (a gallon goes a long way on this thing), I'm not needing to source it any time soon. I know that Red-Line (http://www.redlineoil.com/products_gear ... tegoryID=7) and Sta-Lubed (http://www.crcindustries.com/auto/conte ... aspx?ID=97) still have it available but you have to order it.
A phone call to either of these suppliers should answer all of your questions.
Good luck!

 

Putting gl-4 in my rear diff, thanks for all your ideas, opinions and suggestions.

 

Talked to our chemical professor and he asked why would you use diesel which has sulfates when you can use kerosene instead? Good question.
I didn't think of it but it is sound advice.
You can purchase low sulfur diesel across the U.S. as well as kerosene.
The kerosene has no phosphates or sulfur and is readily available for about the same cost as diesel. Just remember to properly dispose of the waste.
As for diesel messing up your seals, I spoke to one of our engineers (who races Ducs for fun) and he laughed. He said for the short time period you would expose the seals to this material, it should have no effect at all. If you leave it in there for a while (days, weeks) I would expect some problems (leaks).
I ran diesel through a Pontiac 305 (what a steaming pile that was) to clean it and never had a leak once so I'm dubious as to the diesel causing any issues with seal leakage.

 

Hey thanks Robert for your leg work, puts my mind at ease! I only left the diesel in there for about 2 min then flushed it.