1996 2.3l manual transmission fluid

[Lencrull]

Hello all, first post. This may have been discussed before, but I couldn’t find it. My 1996 has high miles and is started to shift hard so I wanted to change the transmission fluid. Ford manual states Mercon and I have read on here they some have better luck with engine oil. I went to auto parts store and the guy there stated I had the wrong fluid and said my truck required Synchromsh. Is this correct? I don’t see this fluid mentioned anywhere. Thanks!

 

[Blmpkn]

Synchromesh works a charm

I went with the stuff because a post @racsan made at some point... if it's good enough for him it's good enough for me.

 

[racsan]

I highly recommend pennzoil syncromesh fluid.

 

[shortstak&1rat]

Hello all, first post. This may have been discussed before, but I couldn’t find it. My 1996 has high miles and is started to shift hard so I wanted to change the transmission fluid. Ford manual states Mercon and I have read on here they some have better luck with engine oil. I went to auto parts store and the guy there stated I had the wrong fluid and said my truck required Synchromsh. Is this correct? I don’t see this fluid mentioned anywhere. Thanks!

I also have a 96 2.3 with what I assume has insanely high mileage (odometer is stuck, got the truck well used and cheap) and I'm finishing up with the clutch replacement. When I dropped the transmission out I figured hell just service the thing now. The manual does state Mercon and normally I have used Synchromesh in all my past manual trans pick-ups (73 Ford and 97 Dodge). I ended up using Mercon V after scouring the internet and not coming up with a solid "100% use this" answer where it wasn't refuted a page later. From what I've come to understand about the clutch system and transmission on this thing I thought it best to try and stick with as close to OEM as possible.

The fluid I drained was BLACK black so I took about a quarter of a quart of new fluid after closing the drain plug and kinda "swished" it around in the transmission, since it was off the truck, to try and get as much of the old fluid/contaminants out as possible. You could probably achieve a similar result using a suction gun and just spraying the clean fluid in there. Then I topped it off with the remaining 2.75 quarts of fluid.

Putting the transmission back in tonight so I can't tell you the results yet of the decision to use Merc V over Synchromesh.

 

[00t444e]

Another vote for Pennzoil Synchromesh, works way better than ATF.