One thing any DIY auto enthusiast would be familiar with how hard it is to change gear oil without a good way to put the new gear oil into the transmission or differential. I personally have tried it all, from using a cumbersome funnel with a hose attached to it, using a little oil can that would need to be refilled 20 times, to the extreme of jacking up the car on one side to tilt it so that I could load gear oil for the differential from the axle side. While we were servicing our van the other day and fumbling with the funnel and hose thing again to fill the transmission, our ambulant mechanic told me about a pump he made that makes the job much easier. So using only scrap materials we had around the shop we got to work and made our own version.
We used an old power steering pump that I had acquired for a project that did not push through (power steering is for the weak.) It stands on a small frame made of scrap angle bar. We welded a metal rod to the pulley to serve as a crank handle. A soda bottle (7up I think, but any will do) was cut in half to form a funnel and fixed to the input line to serve as a reservoir. A hose connected to the output end of the pump leading to whatever needs to be filled with oil. Just remember to butcher the check valve from of the output side of the pump so it'll flow unrestricted. It works quite well. (ignore the oily mess on the floor that was from something else.) I have not had the chance to measure the output yet, but with some vigorous cranking it made short work of pumping 3 liters of gear oil into the transmission we were working on.
It feels nice to get something out of nothing and I can't wait for the next opportunity to use this thing again!
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