Brass Filings in Transmission Oil

[hornby sailor]

yanmar 3gmd km3a tranny sae 30 oil lubrication. changed the oil and there were shiny brass fillings in the oil that came out . is this serious? kind of a large smattering of filings i dont think it had been changed in 4 to 5 years. level was fine.

[capt-couillon]

Bushing wear if very fine "filings" Not good, wear is wear. If no expensive noises, and no big chunks, would run for a while (40 hrs?) and change again checking for debris. If new filings present, time to inspect the guts. Bushings=cheap... Worn or chipped gears from shaft slop = expensive.

A stitch in time and all..

[westwinds]

If the transmission shifts alright and operates without excess noise, then maybe not a problems since it has been a long time since oil change. Some transmissions will even have a drain plug with a strong magnet attached to pickup little bits of metal. See how well it operates. I know brass is not magnetic so I am thinking looks like bass but not really

[Hudson Force]

I once had a problem with the transmission on my Yanmar 4JH3E with the Kanzaki KM384 that resulted in silver colored shavings in my oil. This was due to an error with the throw and draw of my transmission cable that did not allow a full engaging of the gears. I would suggest that you carefully check to see if the gear shift lever on the engine is fully engaged in all positions by the action of the cable. Capt-couillon wisely refers to the other possibility of shavings comming from "shaft slop" and the suggestion of bushings. The brass color does represent another source of wear than the gears, but I don't have the knowledge to refer you to specific brass parts in your transmission.

[hornby sailor]

maybe filings arent brass but looked darker with a film of oil on them. lots of good ideas, thank you so much for helping my thinking on this

[model 10]

Originally Posted by hornby sailor

maybe filings arent brass but looked darker with a film of oil on them. lots of good ideas, thank you so much for helping my thinking on this

Check them with a magnet. As above said, bronze ok maybe, magnetic bad maybe. Magnetic mung is no big deal but steel flakes or shavings can not be good