Ok, ever since I bought my '92 240 Torslanda 140kml (B200F/M47) I have had this hard first/second gear shift.

Although I always understood manual gearbox oil does not require changing (Haynes says so anyway) and I considered this as over-care, I decided to change out the oil. Many people on the board did report good results with changing oil, so I though there must be truth in that - sorry Haynes.

Last time I drained oil from a 240 gear box about 8 years ago (on a '78 m45) the oil was beautifully clean and not knowing the history of the car, I assumed this was normal and the oil had never been changed.

Anyway, when I removed the plug...... Thick, black oil came streaming down. oh my god! I looked at the two plugs and they where full of fine black metal mud. (picture of dirty and clean enclosed). The must is really fine, it smeared black marks on my wifes white kitchen sink (oh boy, don't do this at home!) No traces of any large metal particals. I assume with the plugs filled up like they where, large amounts of metal must have been floating around in the oil.

I filled up with Volvo spec oil (ATF GL-5 I if I remember well)

I assume the oil had never been changed, but still SHOULD BOTH PLUGS BE FILLED UP LIKE THIS!! or is there something chewing itself up and should I start looking for an M47 spare just in case...?

Naturally the shift is much better now and I lost some of the whining noice and vibration (I think) at least it feels better knowing the oil is now transparent red. I plan to change out the oil again in half a years time, allowing the plugs to fill up again and removing all the remaining metal.

That is not a good sign, but the M47 makes some debris, and some of it is not magnetic, so some of what you were probably seeing was from synchro debris in the fluid as well. It does get very dirty, although I've never seen any manual transmission fluid get black like you described.

Run for a few thousand miles with the fluid you bought and put in, and then do what oz sez to do... put in Redline MTL if you can get your hands on it. If not, you can use synthetic 10w30 motor oil too. If you have that awesome quantity of metallic debris in the fluid next time you drain it out, then you can start shopping. But why not see what happens first.

If you're doing a lot of city driving, expect to see some brass or bronze debris in the fluid, which is from the synchros. When I drive all highway miles, the fluid stays metal free. When I drive in the city a lot, it loads up with synchro material after a while. But I get very little metallic debris on the plugs over 20-30k miles.

I change my M47 fluid about once a year with Redline MTL. That's 50,000 miles on the fluid. Except last time I ran out of Redline (thought I had more than I actually had) and I topped it off with a quart of Type F fluid, so I'll probably do it again the right way next weekend after I can get to the place that sells Redline oils.

Also, when you fill the transmission up, tip the car on it's right wheels so you get more fluid into the transmission case. That keeps everything lubed better than just filling to the level of the hole while the car is on level ground, so I'm told.

Yeah, I have the M-47 trans and my 3rd and 5th gears are noisy. Especially the 5th who is making one of these "I want to be lubed" sound... but I changed the tranny oil 2 months ago!! (old lubricant was black and thick) I will confess, I used type F tranny fluid.

It could sound crazy but my tranny was smoother with the thick black shit who was on it before...

At last: What is your personal trick to fill the M-47?? Me, I used one of these "squeezable teddy bears" containing honey. Put an old piece of flexible pipe and filled with this "home made" filler. Also very funny to use to fill the differential.

Not necessary to ask me if I filled my tranny with honey:))

I noticed one time that my tranny got noisier (and weird to shift) with new synthetic fluid. I guess it was just used to having old dirty crap in it. But strangely, when I put type F in on top of the Redline (that I ran short on at the last minute, after draining the old stuff), it was a little quieter.

I'm worried about my trans as well, although the fluid has always been pretty clean. I have shifting problems periodically but I believe it to be more from the clutch, which drags a little bit here and there, especially in really hot weather, or on a steep down incline (I don't get that).

My trans has kind of a funny 3rd gear sound since I got the car 45k ago, but it isn't too bad. The 5th noise is the same high pitched gear whine between 60 and 70 that my brother's car has, although his 3rd gear is very quiet, and his car sees absolutely less than ZERO maintenance. The M47 usually has no problems with 5th gears, but others can be troublesome... I just don't understand these transmissions very well, especially why some make noise, why some make noise in different gears, etc.

if would run this clean fluid for a few thousand miles and replace with redline MTL or a synthetic blend. You would not believe the difference in shifts, no hard into first shifts, etc. i bought my beast w/ 129K, orig. owner never changed the fluid and sold it because he thought the tranny was on the way out. the first thing i did was change the fluid, which made things better, but try this redline. Its expensive @ 9 bones a quart, but you only need two, besides, how much does a new/used tranny run? I've got 234K (75K w/ MTL in the tranny) on my orig. m47 and it shifts like a dream.

happy shifting,

oZ

'87 245 5-speed, 234K ---"the skunkwagon"---

if would run this clean fluid for a few thousand miles and replace with redline MTL or a synthetic blend. You would not believe the difference in shifts, no hard into first shifts, etc. i bought my beast w/ 129K, orig. owner never changed the fluid and sold it because he thought the tranny was on the way out. the first thing i did was change the fluid, which made things better, but try this redline. Its expensive @ 9 bones a quart, but you only need two, besides, how much does a new/used tranny run? I've got 234K (75K w/ MTL in the tranny) on my orig. m47 and it shifts like a dream.

happy shifting,

oZ

'87 245 5-speed, 234K ---"the skunkwagon"---

It is natural for some fine metal bits to be on the magnets, afterall, the gears are metal. The oil should not be black and thick. It does need to be changed. I had the same problem with my 740. The OD had stopped working properly and I took it in for an oil change. It was black and very bad. Do another oil change as you mentioned.