ATF?

[GaryH]

Back when dinosuares roamed the earth, we used to use ATF in our 2 stroke trannys. It gave the clutch a good feel and due to a lighter viscosity, I gained 0.00003 HP.

Are todays trannys that much different?

[Indawoods]

Nah... lots of folks still run ATF.... Mobil 1 is the norm.

[KDXer]

I ran Valvoline type F ATF (once) and my box hated it. Others have had good sucess with other brands of ATF type F though.

[skipro3]

My bike didn't like the ATF either. Lots of sparkly flecks in the lube after a 50 mile ride and the tranny false neuteraled several times as well as kicked out of second into neutral; causing a sever overrev until I could shift again.

Mobil 1 15-50 (red or gold cap) full quart in the gear box makes for a quiet(er) tranny and very good shifting.

[GaryH]

Looks like Ill be using the Mobile1 when I get my bike. Thanks guys.

I probably should of titled this thread "Lubricants". I just thought of a chain lube I used on a mountain bike called White Lightening.

Ill save all that for the salesman. Newb questions can get irrating at times.

[RBD]

I think 2 parts of ATF and 1 part 10-40 motor oil works very well. I have used this combination of road racers and dirt bikes for 30 plus years.

[Indawoods]

Hey Ron!
Never thought about mixing the two... didn't know they would even mix!

[GaryH]

Humm!

On my 71 Mini Enduro I ran Methanol and roughly 8% nitro with ATF in the tranny. One day at the track my Dad decided it wasnt smoking enough during practice and waved me in to add some oil. Back then, ATF only came in those old cans, before plastic bottles. lol But he would store the extra ATF in my old NPG oil bottles. Well on that day, he grabbed the wrong bottle and splashed some ATF in my tank.

Oops!

But with alky at $0.50 a gallon, and nitro at $9 a gallon, he wasnt about to drain the tank. He said to run it.

The bike never ran so good! To this day Im not sure if it actually helped or we were just nuts, but I won my first race that day and we used a couple of tea spoons per gallon from then on. It also seemed to help cut down on carbon build up, which isnt really a problem running fuel to begin with. But everytime I hear of a deisel p/u truck driver addding ATF in his gas, its makes me wonder...

[Rhodester]

I heard about the ATF thing and decided to run a quart in my KDX. At the time that I decided to do this my KDX clutch was just starting to slip a little under a heavy load in the higher gears. After switching to ATF I noticed that the clutch stopped slipping after a while. I chocked this up to the super detergent qualities inherent in ATF. My guess is that the ATF broke down some glazing that had built up on the clutch plates that caused them to begin to slip. The only problem was that my smooth shifting started to deteriorate and I sometimes had problems upshifting from 3rd to 4th (it would stick in 3rd). At my next oil change I went back to my usual synthetic and my shifting immediately improved. ATF must be a good cleaner, but a poor lubricant.......at least that's my theory.

[RBD]

I must admit that my formulas for ATF (type B) and motor oil was used it freshly assembled engines and maintained from that point forward....... And again I have 35 + years of doing this without any problems.

The friction plate ware is insignificant and the clutches would work for a racing season, then recycled into the spares box or giving away to others that needed them. This has worked for me, but oils and what is best is like religion or politics.... who is right............. no winners here, right!

YEA!.......... just another witches brew

[Rhodester]

Hey Ron, It's good to hear from you on line. Thanks for the tour of your facilities a couple of years ago as well as sending me a great Air Striker here recently. I have yet to really put it through some serious riding to fine tune it (weather, ya know). My preliminary ride suggests that this will be a real welcome improvement over the stock carb.