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Originally Posted by Ringadingh
The thinner oils are probably good or better for the motor part of our bikes, but in our engines the same oil is used in the transmissions as well. I wonder if the lighter viscosity's would cause the gears to wear a little quicker, or the shear strength be weaker than some of the other oils.
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thats where the zinc and phosphorous come into play. they are the last resort shield to help avoid metal to metal contact. there are alot of automotive manual transmissions that call for 10w-30 oil. gear teeth have a very high rockwell surface hardness and will probably be the last thing you will have to worry about wearing out. their biggest enemy is pitting, from the acid in old oil. the reason final drive gears need such a heavy oil and are loaded with zinc and phosphorus, (the reason for the bad odor) are they are hypoid gears and half a totally diferent contact wear pattern than the straight cut transmission gears. they have a very small contact patch and a tremendous amount of friction do to the sliding action between the teeth. they also operate at a very low rpm compared to the transmission gears. bill