Steering rack lube

[sparkydave]

Say, I was flipping through the workshop manual, and it gives you the lowdown on greasing the whole thing if you take it apart, but what do you shove in the grease plug? Do you just squirt some grease (what kind?) in there once in a while? It occurred to me it has probably never had anything done to it.

 

[walshja]

great question, one I was going to ask.

hopefully someone knows . . .

 

[Trevor Jessie]

I'm not sure what you are asking? You grease it... with whatever you are greasing the rest of your suspension with.

Now, the earlier racks (switched sometime in '72) use gear oil.

 

[Woodie]

gEAR oIL !!! Dam I used grease last spring...tightened up the steering much nicer drive. What was in there before ??/ I dunno

 

[Trevor Jessie]

No harm done, but this spring shoot some oil in there and pull the boots back and smear grease in there.

 

[Sarastro]

It' supposed to be gear oil, but it's never been clear to me how you get the stuff in. Will a regular grease gun work?

 

[64rocksprite]

Steve,
Maybe a good gun..I tried with a cheaper one..not good..gear oil ALL over the place, except in the rack.
I haven't figured out how to get oil in there. My rack just finished getting cleaned and painted. I pulled the fitting and added oil by pouring in. How I'm going to add in the future once in the car??no clue yet.

 

[sparkydave]

Thanks!

 

[histerical]

I thought this was supposed to be oiled and not greased . I understood that the method was to "inject" oil under a loosened boot.

 

[jlaird]

It is oil. 1/4 pint from dry.

Take an extra zerk and drill a hole in it all the way through. Take out the regular one put the one with the hole in and use one of the quart oil pumps that are like 4 bucks at the auto place. Pump in what you need and change the zerk again to the orginal. Only needs done every few years.

 

[Hap Waldrop]

I put jerk fitting on my and put grease in them, if you guys seen some of your rack bushings you convert to oil too.

 

[64rocksprite]

Hap,
In my earlier days with the car..I greased it (didn't know the manual called for oil). So..you're saying we would convert to oil or convert to grease if we saw the rack bushings?

Do you grease only through the pass side zerk or did you add one for the driver's side of the rack as well?
I can see how a thinner oil would make its way along the whole assembly. No worries about the grease making its way along the rack to the other side?

Jack - on the oil route, the drilled zerk sounds good, but how are you connecting the oil pump? The one I have has about a 3/8" hose on it that I use for filling differentials, etc...seems a bit big for attaching to the zerk(?) What's your technique on that?

 

[jlaird]

Peice of plastic tube from Ace hardware. All that clear tube from Ace fits inside the next size so you can go from what ever to what ever.

 

[HAN8L1965]

So what is the downside of filling it with grease? I too filled mine with grease before finding out late it took gear oil. I was told the only difference might be that it will get stiff in the winter but I don't plan on driving mine in the winter.

Mark

 

[jlaird]

How will greese get from side to side?? Oil should.

 

[Trevor Jessie]

I thought it was an issue of the grease not working it's way out to where it is needed. I use corn head grease in mine. Lubes like grease and flows like oil.

 

[HAN8L1965]

When I had mine all apart, I made sure there was plenty of greasee in it before reassembling. I kind of used the grease gun to push out all the old yuk untill the new grease ran clean. How would you get it out? Soak it in Kerosene?

Mark

 

[jlaird]

Corn head grease in Miss Agatha as well. Complements of Trevor.

 

[nomad]

If you want to put gear oil in the rack modify your grease gun. Unscrew the base of the grease cylinder that the plunger handle goes thru and remove the guts. Then its just a matter of keeping the plunger end up and pouring in some gear oil. Fit the hose to the zerk and pump!!
KA

 

[PAUL161]

Are the Spridgets steering racks a different style than a "B"? I use 90 weight oil in the MGBs.