Kendall is only one of the oils and just one of many choices...
From what I can decipher..Most all stock powered vans can use a NAME BRAND
75/90 Synthetic or similar gear oil and be fine. Valvoline is what my local
Flaps sells and it seems to be a good match as Kendall can be hard to find.
Royal Purple or Amsoil are used by many with no issues.

For 165 hp and higher vans, we Syncro guys use the Swepco 210 which is a
80/140 non synthetic racing and industrial lube.

The other very important key is to change the stuff every 2 yrs or so to
keep and eye on what comes out of it. Metal particles and brass and just
plain black watery stuff is a no-no.
Same goes with flushing coolant and brake fluid....

Daryl of AA Transaxle
425-788-4070
"On the cutting edge of Old technology"
86 Syncro Westy w/Turbo Zetec in the trunk

-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of
Richard Koerner
Sent: Thursday, March 08, 2012 5:17 PM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Manual Tranny Oil

Just noticed a discussion on the subaruvanagon list about tranny oil, as
follows:

"Redline no longer recommends their products for hypoid gears, making it
completely unsuitable for Vanagon/T3 transaxles. So its Swepco 201 or 210,
depending on your engine/power level." 

The fact that Redline changed their formulation on the MT-90 synthetic oil
was recently confirmed by a tranny expert (at BBTB in January).� The new
recommendation is Kendall 75-90 Synthetic (which IS a hypoid gear oil) with
a change recommended every 2 years.� Sounds good to me.� My tranny (196,000
miles) currently has MT-90, coming up on the 2 year change this summer, at
which time I'll move to Kendall 75-90 as recommended.

Kinda wondering how long these trannys last?� Guess it all depends on how it
was driven; and I'm Mr. Gentle with mine, I'm in no big hurry.

Rich
San Diego