what to use
 

Hello Barners. I live in an area where it is hard to find some products. My steering gear box always leaks with 600w oil. I am unable to get Corn Head grease here and do not want to use 600w oil. Is there an alternative I can use to keep from my steering box not to leak.
Any help would be appreciated.

Paul

Re: what to use
 

Did you try the John Deere dealer in Prescott, AZ (RDO Equipment?) They should be able to order corn head lube for you if they don't stock it. Or you can order online.

But - better to figure out where/why your steering gear is leaking, and fix it. At least for two tooth sets, they generally leak either out the bottom and into the light switch housing (there is a replacement end plate with a long tube to fix that) or out the sector shaft (best fix for that is to install a housing with a seal in it).

Over the years some folks have filled the steering box with chassis grease to get away from this problem. This is NOT a good idea, you need a flowable lube to keep the worm and sector gears lubricated.

Re: what to use
 

There is a part at the bottom of the steering box that is modified with a stanchion tube that will reduce your leak considerably. Go to a vendor site and look through the 'steering' category. There is a seal that can be added to the sector housing also. Snyder's will modify your own and send it back to you.

Our coupe has the lower part, the soldered or welded long upward tube. It does not have the seal at the sector housing. I add a few ounces of W600 every 10 days or so to top it up. The car is driven regularly. The sector housing leak runs down the lower chassis rail and down the edge of the splash pan to the middle of the pan onto my drain pan on the floor. I will be upgrading this sector seal in the near future, but its not really a huge hassle to refill. A small wrench and a plastic honey container with the long nose spout works well to add W600 with little or no mess.

I believe you can find John Deere corn head grease on Amazon.

Re: what to use
 

Here you go. https://www.amazon.com/s?k=john+deer..._ts-doa-p_2_15

Re: what to use
 

For the 7 tooth box: https://www.snydersantiqueauto.com/p...7839&cat=41749

For the 2 tooth box: https://www.snydersantiqueauto.com/p...7901&cat=41748

What these tubes do is bring the normal opening where the horn and light switch rod goes through the bottom of the box to above the normal oil level. A lot of oil leaks past the opening without the tube. Of course, seals must be used at all the other places and a good practice is to use some sort of gasket sealer. Once you get the leaks fixed, use the modern gear lube, 85W-140, which has additives that will make your box last a lot longer.