'55 p.steering oil

[LM 25575]

Hi,

I am writing for a friend which has a doubt about power steering oil for his '55 Caddy. The oil he found in the pump doesn't look like transmission oil, which is the one which is raccomanded by the manual. Looks more like normal engine oil. Now, shouldn't the transmission oil  be red, like Dexron 2 or 3?
Thanks.

[P W Allen CLC# 20193]

Yes, it should be transmission fluid with Dexron and it should be red.

Paul

[Otto Skorzeny]

Take a sample on your finger and smell it. You'll be able to tell if it's engine oil or just burned/dirty transmission fluid.

Either way that stuff needs to be gotten out of there and the system completely flushed. You might have to drain it and refill it several times to get all the current fluid out.

While on person is adding fluid, have another guy turn the wheel lock to lock while running to drain it until the outflow runs cherry red. You can hook a long hose to the low pressure return and empty it into a bucket. Plug the return nipple on the reservoir.

[35-709]

This has been discussed in the past, here is a post from member Bill Henry a little over a year ago.

well i gotta say i have 23 years experiance with hydraulic systems and can tell you without a doubt that Type A . atf and parts store power steering fluid are the exact same oil only one has red dye and the dye was originally for leak detection and separation now as with all hydraulic oils there are differant viscosities but the base stock for all is usually AW46 hydraulic oil . here look at this ad for amsoil   http://www.woodsbrosracing.com/amsoil/atf.htm   a power steering pump is a vane type pump same as the front pump in your automatic tranny so i doubt aft would cause it to burn up."  http://hydraulics.eaton.com/products/pdfs/i3191s.pdf

If you want to read the whole thread follow this link ---- http://www.cadillaclasalleclub.org/forum/index.php/topic,105776.0.html
It starts off talking about a 1995 car but moves on.  Using the SEARCH function can answer a lot of questions that have been thoroughly hashed over here before.

Your car may have been filled with PS fluid rather than transmission fluid and the fact that the PS fluid does not have the red dye is no doubt why it does not look red.  If you want to change the fluid out anyway for your peace of mind that is fine but you do not HAVE to use tranny fluid, power steering fluid is just as good ---- also the modern Dexron tranny fluids are backwards compatible.  
Geoff N.  

[Alan Harris CLC#1513]

Transmission has not always been red. I have a Lincoln service bulletin from 1957 announcing that, henceforth, Type A fluid would be dyed red for leak detection.

If the 1955 Cadillac has never has the PS worked on or the fluid changed it would still have the original, uncolored oil.

[LM 25575]

Thanks to all of you. As usual your replies are very interesting!

Here is the link to an italian US cars forum where you can see my friend's '55 Caddy during restoration.
http://www.usacarsforum.it/forum/index.php?showtopic=5530&st=0&start=0

Luca