Ital Live Axle - definitive oil volume required

[Tazio]

I've been reading through old posts trying to determine the volume of oil to use in an Ital live axle, there's lots of conflicting info about overfilling, but by how much?  Does anyone have a definitive answer on how much to put in for relaible operation, it has a Quaife atb installed if that matters.

Alan

[Nigel B]

I'm not sure I have a 'definitive' answer, as such, but I always took the approach of jacking the car up as high as I could at the back & filling through the upper fill hole until oil ran out. Essentially getting as much oil in as I could. 
 

I had my Ital axled 7 for seventeen years & I didn't have any problems using that method. I didn't experience any leaks from the driveshaft seals, even on track. For about the last eight years of my ownership I ran it with a Quaife diff.

Strangely enough, it's for sale at GP Sevens right now. The blue VX Classic. I'm half tempted to buy it back! 

[Tazio]

Can you remember ' how much as i could 'was?, 1 litre?, 1.5lites?,  2?

[rkeywood]

Hi Alan,

Same axle/diff on mine. I've always taken the Graham Sykes guide as the best advice for all Ital axle issues and followed that. That says overfill to 2 to 2.5 pints. I can get about 0.7 litre (1.25 pints)  through the plug with the car lifted and then get another 0.5 litre (nearly a pint) in via the breather. In 10 years of heavy use race and road I never had an issue doing that. 

R

[Nigel B]

I don't think I ever measured the amount I put in (after the first fill when I built the car). I still have the assembly guide, which recommends -

"Marina/Ital - Comma Oils GL5 SX 75w-90 with Extralube LZ6178 (No LSD).
Volume - Approximately 1 litre GL5 and 100ml Extralube"

From what I remember, I suspect I had closer to two litres in mine.

I learned the hard way! About six months after I built the car I did a club track day at Cadwell Park & with the prescribed 1.1 litres of oil/lubricant, I found I had a very loud, whining diff by lunchtime! By overfilling  the axle (with the newly rebuilt diff!), I didn't have a recurrence of the problem.

[rkeywood]

I've just checked my guide and that is different from Nigel's, both in volume and oil spec. The chassis plate, with the fluid spec's on it, is different again so you're unlikely to get a definitive answer! Back when I started a lot of the race cars were live axle, as were a couple of Clubmans cars that friends ran, and the common practice was to overfill via the breather. I suggest you buy 2 litres, fill as far as you can through the plug, sling the extra that Graham says in via the breather and you'll be as wise as the rest of us! What oil are you intending to use? I recently swapped to Fuchs Titan SYN5 75W 90 on Quaife's advice.

R

[Tazio]

Sincere thanks both, I have the axle on the bench so it's easy to overfill it using the normal filler hole, so far I've put about 1.5 litres in so around  2.6 pints,, I'm using Phil from R&Rs home brew oil, GL5 80w 90, it seems a good time to stop 

[Nigel B]

No problem Alan. Good luck with getting the axle back in. I've heard good things about the R&R oil.