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Vampyr's Haffie has a dipstick fitted to the gearbox. It is of a screw on style similar to the engine dipstick. i see that there is a dip stick listed in the parts manual but have not seen any fitted except on Danny's. So is the fitting of a dipstick on the gearbox the norm or the exception - my Haffie certainly does not have one.

Garry

AIUI the dipstick is only fitted on the early Hafs; my 1962 SWB has one, but the later machines do not. Strange that they "deleted" it.

Probably deleted due to cost when they came to the conclusion that the fill hole provides the same functionality.


John

Hey Gary,
My Haffie is a 1968 model and has a gearbox dip stick, and a lovely little dipstick it is as well. Why it is there is beyond me. Do you fill the gearbox until the oil runs out the filler hole, then screw the plug in and then check the level with the dipstick. If the level is down on the dipstick you tip the vehicle up on its side and put some more oil in it, lower the vehicle down and dip the oil again. If its still down on oil then repeat the process.
I have been crawling over my Haffie every day for months now doing a complete rebuild and the more I see of it the more I love the little bugger.
Regards Rick.

I sent this to Gary, as I was blooding my knuckles working on this Haffy, this is on my 2nd Haffy. Its a 5 speed, 1970 anti friction ( Australia, Melbourne) build. My other 1974 Haffy does not have one. Like everyone else, I wonder at the over engineering. Danny

Other than being a quick way to see if you need to add oil to the gearbox, that dip stick is not actually much use and would require atleast three machining operations during the machining of the case - so I am sure it was dropped due to cost cutting towards the end of production.
Lurch (1973 originally) does not have one although the casing has the casting for where it is - just not machined and fitted!

John

In following your line of thought John, I'm assuming it was there for those that had the PTO drive fitted so that it was a quick way to check your oil level. Working on the principle that only a small percentage had the option fitted they dropped the extra cost of having to fit it to all gearboxes. Danny

Just to throw it out there, my canadian spec series 2 haffie has the dipstick, and it's registered as a 1972 (data plate is missing the year, so I can't be too sure). Still doesn't explain why some got the dipstick and some didn't...

I wonder how you are supposed to get to it if you have heat exchangers fitted? Lucky Lurch doesn't have one as it would probably never get used as it is in such an awkward place.

John

In 2014 I bought some yellow and green heat shrink from http://www.heatshrink-online.co.uk - colours were a very good / close match; I found that to get the most suitable diameter (19.1mm) past the 90 degree was too difficult, but the next size up (25.4mm) was better.

My 1963 has one...real pain to get to also.

Julian B wrote:In 2014 I bought some yellow and green heat shrink from http://www.heatshrink-online.co.uk - colours were a very good / close match; I found that to get the most suitable diameter (19.1mm) past the 90 degree was too difficult, but the next size up (25.4mm) was better.

Hi Julian - was this actually meant for my thread on keeping my lever up

Oops sorry, wrong thread!

Hey Gary,
I will use my dipstick to check my level, but I am glad there are 2 filler plugs as one of them I can hardly get to because of the muffler, shocker and radius rod all jammed into a fairly tight area. The plug on the NS of the gearbox has heaps of room around it and is easy to get to.
Regards Rick.

I have a 71 and 72 Pathfinder
71 has
72 does not
Weird

Nearside filler plug is going to get less easy to get to once you put the platform on and the sump guard! Still easier than the offside, but not by much.....

If you check your oil with the dip stick, once you've managed to get to it - great if you don't have to add oil, but if you do, then over to the other side. Take out the fill bolt, put oil in, wait until it comes out over the lip. Put filler bolt back in. Do you then go and check the oil level again with the dip stick?

With out dip stick,

undo filler bolt, if oil comes out - correct level. If no oil, add some till it comes out, put filler bolt back in - done.

So, personally, I wouldn't bother with the dip stick even if Lurch had one. (1973 - no dipstick)

John