VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND EARLIER 1933-1936 Lubrication of steering box 1935 master.

Hi-
I have been looking in my 35 shop man. It says inspect and lube with chasis lube. It shows a pic with a grease zert. Mine just has a plug. Chasis lube to me means grease. They didn't fill them with grease did they. Mine sure isn't but it is low to empty. What should I use?

Thanks,

Brent

Brent
I agree chassis lube means grease. I also think unless you have recently rebuilt the steering box anything thinner would leak out the bottom as fast as you could pour it in. Most modern gear type boxes use grease so I cannot see any problems using grease in yours. I will be in my 38 when and if I get that far.
Tony

Brent,
I recently took a spare box apart to rebuild it (with a part I bought on ebay that doesn't fit!) and sure enough...it's grease. No oil. Tony is right that oil would leak out. The two main parts of the box are gasketed but I think oil would still be a mess. I plan on using plain old grease-gun grease when I'm ready to put it back together.

Brent
I concur that the steering box is designed for chassis grease. My 36 has a grease fitting and the owners manual referes to lubing it with grease. When I pulled it apart during restoring it had grease in it.

Thanks for all the input, I guess I will put grease in it. I just thought such a large cavity like the steering box would not be full of grease.

The car has been sitting since 1968, so I assumed if there was a small leak it would of drained completely in 36 years.

Brent

Chassis lube in the late 20s and early 30s was actually 600 weight oil and not modern grease. We have found that steering boxes filled with chassis grease are more worn than those that used heavy oil. The fluid used must be able to flow enough to move back between the part when squeezed out.

Unfortunately, many of the early steering boxes had no oil seals and the 600W ran out onto the floor in just a couple of days. The spec's call for 600W as Chipper Dipper stated, but many dudes now use chassis grease instead to avoid the problem of the oil leaking all over the garage floor.

However, a few guys have machined their steering boxes (like the 1929 and 1930 for example), and installed oil seals, and they are using heavy oil in their steering boxes with success.

i have rebuilt several stearing boxes all the ones that had oil in them were in good shape for the age i replaced the worn parts grooved the shaft near the end of the bushing installed a o ring slidit in no leaks on the floor hope this helps pushrod