VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND EARLIER 1912-1928 Lubercation of tie rod

I am doing the final assembly of my 28 CSC. While putting the steering together I discovered there is no zert, or threaded hole for one, on the ends of the tie rod. How is this connection lubricated?

The tie rod ends are lubricated when they are assembled. Or later when partially taken apart, lubed and put back together. If you have a large ID hypodermic needle you can grease then with it. Originally they were lubed with Heavy Oil.

The 1928 owner's manual says to pack them with cup grease every 250 miles.

I really like the idea of using a syringe to do this job! Thanks for the idea, Chipper.

I noticed that there are teflon rebuild kits for the Model T tie rod ends. Seems like a viable solution. Any available for us Chevy folks?

Thanks, Dean

I would never seriously consider using a Teflon insert in a tie rod end. Teflon will cold flow (deform under pressure) and compress which could possibly could result a tie rod end coming apart.

Hello!
I was working for a company where I did some stress analysis and tensile tests with different "plastics".
So I agree Chipper. I would never ever use Teflon for this.
There is not really a lower limit of surface pressure that wouldn´t cause cold flow. Just a matter of time.
Without knowing that someone offers non-metal ball seats (for Fords) I made my own. But with POM-C. Normal POM will not work!
Will see how good it works.
To lubricate POM-C is not necessary but usefull.







I also used POM-C for a new steering column bushing.
Tino

Rube Goldberg strikes again!

Based on Chipper's idea of using a syringe to administer grease to the tie rod ends, I made this adapter that screws onto the end of my grease gun.

Patent pending. Dean

Nice adapter! I just have the one from Lincoln with a zerk on the end of a needle. Should work fine When I get to that point. I agree with not using the Teflon as a substitute But if one was to do so could they not use UHMW? Or is that the same as POM-C just a different name? At the Machine shop I worked at we used it quite often for many different bushings / sliders and even replaced rollers with it as an upgrade in some cases. In my opinion the stock parts are fine and I don't mind the maintenance but it is an interesting idea.