Death of a rear end.

[woodrow256]

Scottyb, i could not find any STP brand oil additive at the parts house. Is it for oil only? I would like to find it and add it later. It was oriellys where i couldnt find it.

[Sir Nuke]

Originally Posted by woodrow256

Scottyb, i could not find any STP brand oil additive at the parts house. Is it for oil only? I would like to find it and add it later. It was oriellys where i couldnt find it.

WOW, that's odd.....you should be able to find it as Wal-Mart.

[JohnnieB]

Originally Posted by woodrow256

Yea the controller seems to be fine. Im just glad my wheels didnt lock up like yours, cause my 2 yr old girl and my pregnant wife was on there with me. Anyway, i got the original txt motor in now and it seems to respond pretty well to 48v. I had one hell of a time breaking into the pumpkin. Somebody had siliconed the crap out of it. The oil was black, and there was slime on the bottom. I put in some synthetic 75w gear oil. I coundnt find any synthetic sae 30w. The whine seems a little better maybe. I hear you on the d&d motor. Ive got to find something better now that ive felt that good torque from my bandit. Im not gonna have another bandit motor. That one didnt last 2 years. It was good while it lasted.

Glad to here wife and child okay. Also nice to hear the controller might still be working.

You might want to back the 500A controller off to about 400A while running the stock motor. Except for the first few feet of the line, you won't notice much, if any, difference in performance.

The 75W gear oil mighty be a bit on the thin side, it's roughly about the same viscosity as 15W motor oil.
Motor oil and gear oil are measured on different viscosity scales, see attached.

However, if it is 75W-90 or 75W-140, its okay.

[woodrow256]

They wouldnt make oil w confusing would they? Holy crap, i figured i was borderline too thick. Johnnieb, u are wealth of knowledge my friend.

[JohnnieB]

It gets more complicated the just the viscosity being measured with different yardsticks.
Motor oils and gear oils work in different environments and are subjected to different stresses and operate at different temperatures, so the have different additives.

This is one of the better explanations I've found:

Gear Oil and Motor Oil Are Not the Same
Gear oil differs from motor oil. Most people assume that
SAE 90 gear oil is much thicker than SAE 40 or 50 motor
oil. However, they are the same viscosity. According to
AMSOIL Technical Drivetrain Products Manager Kevin
Dinwiddie, the difference is in the additives.

“Motor oil has to combat byproduct chemicals from
gasoline or diesel ignition and should contain additives
such as detergents and dispersants,” said Dinwiddie.
“Since an internal combustion engine has an oil pump
and lubricates the bearings with a hydrodynamic film, the
need for extreme pressure additives such as those used
in gear oils does not exist in engines.”

Engine oils and gear oils both have anti-wear additives,
and they both must lubricate, cool and protect components,
but gear oils are placed under extreme amounts
of pressure, creating a propensity for boundary lubrication,
a condition in which a full fluid lubricating film is not
present between two rubbing surfaces. For example,
differentials in cars and trucks have a ring and pinion
hypoid gear set. A hypoid gear set can experience
boundary lubrication, pressures and sliding action that
can wipe most of the lubricant off the gears. To combat
this extreme environment, extreme pressure additives are
incorporated into the oil.

I seriously doubt if any of the engineers at EZGO or Dana use gear oil in the engines of their personal automobiles, so I wonder why they put motor oil in the differentials of golf carts.

I've got an 80/20 mix of SAE 40 motor oil and STP in my differential now, but I've learned a bit about oils since then and I'll probably replace it with Lucas Synthetic 75W140 when I put new bearings on the input shaft this spring.