Can you start car without transmission fluid???

[gieri002]

I just finished building/installing my engine and I am wondering if there are any adverse effects of starting it up without any transmission(manual) fluid in it. Without moving it of course

 

[blackrosenova40]

Theres always a load inside the transmission, its just a matter of how much. Run a transmission long enough without oil, you will wreck bearings/gears.

Also when a trans is in neutral, the gears are chattering kind of like a air impact, from engine pulses. I wouldnt want that happening without gear oil on my transmission gears.

 

[MidShipCivic]

Theres always a load inside the transmission, its just a matter of how much. Run a transmission long enough without oil, you will wreck bearings/gears.

Also when a trans is in neutral, the gears are chattering kind of like a air impact, from engine pulses. I wouldnt want that happening without gear oil on my transmission gears.

The clutch is rotating / slipping at a slower speed when you push the clutch in correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[Lofty]

I also ran my engine out of oil once.

Nothing happened.


Don't run your car without trans fluid.

Will it be okay? Probably.

Is that un-nessesary wear that your trans doesnt need.
Yup.

 

[SOADweskey]

Here is the failure I had, my car had been down for a while as I was replacing a blown turbo so when I put the new one on I wanted to check the oil pressure going to the new turbo so I started the car and let it idle up to operating temperature. I was not holding int he clutch so the input shaft was turning with the engine the whole time. After we hit operating temperature I began slowly pressing the throttle to get a good log of oil pressure vs. RPM (still not pushing in the clutch so now the input shaft is spinning faster). At about 5500 RPM I hear a loud clunk and the engine dies. I pushed in the clutch and started it back up and as soon as I let off the clutch it stalled again.

Here is what happened to it. There is a plastic oil rail at the top of the trans that is fed by oil flung to the top by the front differential when the car is in motion (or on jack stands with the wheels turning) and this rail runs down the length of the trans to drop oil down onto the gears. fifth is at the end of this so it gets the least amount of oil and in my case almost no oil. Here is a picture of what 5500 RPM with to little lubrication did to the mating surface between fifth gear and the fifth gear hub.

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[MidShipCivic]

What happened to the rest of your internals? We were talking about not doing what you did putting load (take it beyond idle /start up) with next to nothing in the trans .

This is a great thread.

 

[SOADweskey]

The rest of the internals were fine. I put in a new fifth gear and hub as well as the bearing race and she was back on the road. It still sucked.

And my stance on the whole thing is that it is simply better to wait when there is no need to chance damage.

 

[gieri002]

I put the fluid in and the car started and ran great, thanks for the help guys!

 

[SOADweskey]

Awesome man. I'm happy for you, I love the feeling of getting a car running again after some serious work.

 

[gieri002]

Thank you sir, I agree it is a GREAT feeling!