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1953 Steering box

Started by Jim Govoni 20546, April 24, 2007, 11:33:20 AM

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Jim Govoni 20546

Hello all; Can anyone tell me which oil/fluid to use in the steering box? I dont mean the power steering, I mean the box where the steering gears are. The manual refers to some long ago used GM fluid, but not if its gear fluid like that used in the differential. Many thanks, Jim

Art Woody

All manufacturers used special lube in the steering boxes when gears are new. All recommend using gear lube manufactured by oil companies for maintenance, such as the same used in differentials and manual transmissions. A good multi-purpose gear lube in 80, 90, or 75-90 wt. is all you need.

Jim Govoni

Thanks Art, thats just what I need.  Jim

Dave

Do you think 140 wt. gear oil would be better? I would think the 90 weight would be too thin.

Jeff Maltby 4194

I have both current experience and experience when the cars were new with putting chassis lube in steering boxes of old Cadillacs.
 
First with the current experience.  I have owned my 40 LaSalle for 10 years and one of the first things that I did was to put chassis lube in the box.  It leaked fluid like s sieve.  That was 10 years ago and so far it hasnt leaked a drop.  In that time I have driven it to 8 consecutive Grand Nationals with out any problems.
 
And now the old experience.  Since the day they were built leakage of grease from the boxes was a problem.  In the dealership that I worked, it was common practice when we had a complaint, to drain the gear lube out and replace it with chassis lube.  And I remember doing it to cars that were quite new, say 6 months old.
 
To do it it is best to drain the grease out of the box by loosening the 4 bolts that hold the front bearing cap of the worm gear about 2 turns and let it stand over night.  Tighten the bolts back up and fill the box with Chassis lube.  We made a special tool to do this by getting a pipe plug (1/2 as I remember) and drill and tap the plug so that a Zirck fitting could be installed in it.  This was screwed into the steering box and grease was applied.  In this way you could completely fill the box with grease without any air pockets.
 
If you try to fill it with grease directly from the grease gun you will get a lot of air trapped in the box.  It works great and is a lot easier to do than re-sealing the box.  Perhaps modern seals will do a better job than the old leather seals that were in common use in the 40s and 50s but this is so easy and works so well that I wouldnt do it any other way.
 
I am a stickler for originality but draw the line on things that can be fixed that didnt work well when they were new and this is one of them.  On my 40 LaSalle I have made 2 modifications that both work much better than the original and can not be detected from the outside and the original parts were not harmed in any way.  As you might have guessed, this is one.  The other is the bearing seals of the water pump.  I have devised a way to rebuild the flathead water pumps so they dont leak and have done it on my pumps and about 25 others and so far no leaks and one has gone about 25,000 miles.
 
Frank DeCou

Art Woody

If a differential or gearbox were prone to reach a high temperature or made a lot of noise, an 80-140 wt. lube might be practical. Considering the work of the differential, and the punishment it takes, I would not think a steering box is going reach any where near that temperature. A heavy wt. oil is less efficient in engines or gears. You can create more load with higher viscosity.

Geoff Newcombe #4719

I was going to suggest putting grease in there also but was afraid Id get booed off the forum.  :-)  I had a 32 Chevy Coupe back in the  early 60s and this is what I was told to do by and old time (back then) front end man, worked just fine.

Mike Simmons (938)

 Penrite of Australia is a company specializing in lubricants for veteran, vintage and classic vehicles (basically pre-1960 cars), at least in the US. Their products are handled by Restoration Supply Co in Escondido,CA  (restorationstuff.com).About 7-8 yrs ago, they had a representative in the San Francisco area, and he gave me lots of literature and some reccomendations about strg boxes. Older boxes used some very thick stuff-approximating 600W. Their current strg box lubricant is described as Highly viscous w/ high pressure additives. Not supposed to leak out. They advise against modern multi-purpose grease (it will not slump,whatever that means); and against modern gear oils because of light viscosity and possible corrosion to bronze and brass. I bought some of their special strg box stuff. One is advised to heat it in boiling water if you want it to pour-SLOWLY-into your gear box.