Gl-4 gear oil Takeuchi Tb260

Hi all,

My Tb260 says it requires gl-4 90 gear oil in the drives. I put in gl-5 thinking it was better spec, but now figured out that higher spec may not be a good thing...I finally found 2 gallons of EP 90 gear oil gl-4 at advanceauto that’s is carquest brand. I’m going to switch it out this weekend, but am wondering if Takeuchi drive motors have any yellow metal in them that would cause an issue with a gl-5 rated oil?

Thanks

I have trying to find GL4 for my 153, I appreciate the location. I would get that GL5 out of the finals. I am not certain, but I would have to believe that if Taki didn't have yellow metal they would have speced 5 to begin with.

Yep, Carquest carries straight 90, but can you use 85W-90? Or 85W-140 for hot weather, or even a full synthetic? Just to throw another puzzler at you, We use CAT TDTO-50 (which in it's classification as pretty much exactly the same viscosity as the 90W EP lube) in all our planetary finals with wet brakes, or no brakes. Mo bettah.

None of that answers your original question of course, I do not know if Tak's drives have and brass or bronze in the gearbox.

KSSS said:

I have trying to find GL4 for my 153, I appreciate the location. I would get that GL5 out of the finals. I am not certain, but I would have to believe that if Taki didn't have yellow metal they would have speced 5 to begin with.

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The Japanese have a tendency to spec a minimum without any guidance as to better options. Like I said, we change everything we can over to the CAT drive train oil, TDTO-50. Smells better, runs cleaner and cooler.

lantraxco said:

The Japanese have a tendency to spec a minimum without any guidance as to better options. Like I said, we change everything we can over to the CAT drive train oil, TDTO-50. Smells better, runs cleaner and cooler.

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Ho yas, with knobs on ...........

For the Tak, TO-4/TDTO SAE50 without a 2nd thought.

Good to know.

A lot of people get confused with 50 vs 90 when it comes to viscosity. The thing is they are measured on different scales, the TDTO/TO-4 is measured on the crankcase oil viscosity scale and the GL-X (unsurprisingly) on the gear oil viscosity scale. See the chart below, a 50 crankcase oil comes bang in the middle of the 90 range on the gear oil scale.

An interesting factoid - final drives in the same size of excavator sold by two major manufacturers. Made for each of them by the same outside supplier, only the logo on the cover changes. So riddle me this, One OEM recommends EP90, the other one TO-4 50. One of those things that makes you go hmmmmm.........

Like lantraxco, I've switched lots of final drives, swing drives, etc, etc, from EP to TDTO (in some cases to FDAO) oils and have documented major improvements in oil analysis results to back it up. The really nice thing about TDTO/FDAO oils is that they have zero effect on yellow metal parts.

Thanks for all the replies, I’ll flush it out a few times with the carquest sae90 and get some Tdto 50.

The part# for the carquest brand is 990-01 (LUB)

Thanks

I took apart my finals on a tl140 that specs gl4, and I didn't see any bronze or brass in there.

skata said:

I took apart my finals on a tl140 that specs gl4, and I didn't see any bronze or brass in there.

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That’s great news! Thanks for the update

I use store bought 80w90 oil in all of my Takeuchis. Some have over 10k hours and never an issue.
I've got 2 TL150, 1 TB53FR, and 4 TB180FR.
I use the same in my Yanmar Vio machines, and my Kubota SVL machines.
I change the drive oils at either 250 or 500 hours, depending on where they've been, and a few other random reasons.

heymccall said:

I use store bought 80w90 oil in all of my Takeuchis. Some have over 10k hours and never an issue.
I've got 2 TL150, 1 TB53FR, and 4 TB180FR.
I use the same in my Yanmar Vio machines, and my Kubota SVL machines.
I change the drive oils at either 250 or 500 hours, depending on where they've been, and a few other random reasons.

Click to expand...

How often the planetary oil should be changed is dependant on time ( because of internal moisture accumulation in some climates) and how many turns in so many hours. If the machine walks 1 KM often it is not the same as just diggging and small amounts of travel. Simon