Grease nipples.

[surreveps]

I want to replace the grease nipples in my 32 model B. Can someone please tell me the size and thread type? How many straight and how many twisted do I need?

[Lawson Cox]

Originally Posted by surreveps

I want to replace the grease nipples in my 32 model B. Can someone please tell me the size and thread type? How many straight and how many twisted do I need?

Count them yourself, if you can count that high. (The devil made me say that.)

[T Scott]

Most likely 1/8" NPT but don't know how many angled vs straight.
Are you driving your cabriolet around Gran Canaria? What a great island for touring. I spent some time over the years working with a pelargonium producer in Galdar. Loved it.

[DavidG]

Assuming that your cabriolet isn't of very early production, there were only two angled grease fittings on '32 106" wheelbase chassis such as yours and those were on rear brake backing plates for the operating levers there. (It may be four if your mechanical brake system has four rear brake rods as did some of the European '32s.) These are shown in the first photo below and are the same as used on Model As.

The rest of the chassis used 9 straight tapered fittings, also the same as used on Model As, as shown in the second photo.

Both have 1/8 NPT threads and are available from snydersantiqueauto.com for $1.25 each for the angled fittings and $0.95 for the straight fittings plus shipping.

If you wish to use the more modern fittings with the nipple tips that Ford adopted starting during the 1933 model year, those are available from Snyder's as well.

[Flathead Fever]

"If you wish to use the more modern fittings with the nipple tips that Ford adopted starting during the 1933 model year, those are available from Snyder's as well."


I have a stock Model A and vintage hot rods I still like to keep the hot rods semi-original. I did not know the tapered zerks were only used through 1932. That is good to know. I always like seeing them on vintage highboy hot rods where they are out there for all to see. It adds to the vinatge theme you're trying to recreate. Good to know on my current '34 pickup build that modern zerks would be correct, I was going to use the tapered ones. The restorers have a wealth of information. That's why I'm here and not over on the H.A.M.B. There are less and less Ford purists to pass along their knowledge. I grew-up in that world in the 1960s and 1970s. My dad restored Model A's, yet he also loved flathead hot rods. Anything Ford. Every bolt had to be original correct, every bolt finish had to be correct... That rubbed off on me.

I had a neighbor that owned a lube bisiness. When he moved out of CA, he gave me all of his boxes of new zerks. Every size, angle and thread, hundreds and hundreds of them. At least on an Early Ford you won't need to figure out if the thread is metric.

[surreveps]

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Originally Posted by T Scott

Most likely 1/8" NPT but don't know how many angled vs straight.
Are you driving your cabriolet around Gran Canaria? What a great island for touring. I spent some time over the years working with a pelargonium producer in Galdar. Loved it.

Thanks for the reply. I agree Gran Canaria is great for topless driving, especialy in an old Ford. I live in the south, but have been driving in the mountains. Now I am waiting for my Burtz engine.

[surreveps]

Originally Posted by DavidG

Assuming that your cabriolet isn't of very early production, there were only two angled grease fittings on '32 106" wheelbase chassis such as yours and those were on rear brake backing plates for the operating levers there. (It may be four if your mechanical brake system has four rear brake rods as did some of the European '32s.) These are shown in the first photo below and are the same as used on Model As.

The rest of the chassis used 9 straight tapered fittings, also the same as used on Model As, as shown in the second photo.

Both have 1/8 NPT threads and are available from snydersantiqueauto.com for $1.25 each for the angled fittings and $0.95 for the straight fittings plus shipping.

If you wish to use the more modern fittings with the nipple tips that Ford adopted starting during the 1933 model year, those are available from Snyder's as well.

Thanks for your informative answer. (as allways) I have already come along one more angeled fitting, on the cover for the universal joint for the drive shaft. I will try to buy the fittings in Norway, if that does not work out I will put it on the long shopping list from the US.

[DavidG]

The angled fitting for the universal joint cap/cup was used later. Unless, perhaps with the double brake cross shaft equipped chassis (common on many European '32s) an angled fitting provides a better angle.


P.S. Yours is a very nice car in a very nice setting, enjoy! Thanks for sharing the photos.

[Lincolnville]

My cabriolet has two angled grease fittings on the tie rod in addition to the rear brake backing plates. Further all of my fittings appear to be of a different variant than what is in your attachment. Should I change my fittings? Or is it possible because my cabriolet was manufactured in Canada the current fittings are correct.

[DavidG]

There's no basis for thinking that the original Ford of Canada grease fittings varied from the U.S. counterparts as they show up in the Ford of Canada archives photos of the period, but over the years the original tapered fittings were often replaced with the Alemite nipple version such as in your photos as they were far more likely to match up with service stations' grease guns with the passing of time.

[Bored&Stroked]

If I am correct, the original 32 tapered grease fittings did not have a spring and check ball in them - whereas modern Zerc fittings all have a spring and check ball. I'm not around my 32 CAB at the moment, so I can't check - though I believe this to be true?

Unless you really care about originality and looks, I'd run the modern Zercs - as they prevent grease from pushing back out of the fitting.

[DavidG]

With respect, the original tapered grease fittings do indeed have a spring-loaded ball check valve and do not leak any more than the more modern Alemite nippled fittings.

Perhaps you are thinking of the pressed-in fittings sometimes encountered in the tie rod ends. Not all of those had/still have check valves.

[Kube]

Originally Posted by Bored&Stroked

If I am correct, the original 32 tapered grease fittings did not have a spring and check ball in them - whereas modern Zerc fittings all have a spring and check ball. I'm not around my 32 CAB at the moment, so I can't check - though I believe this to be true?

Unless you really care about originality and looks, I'd run the modern Zercs - as they prevent grease from pushing back out of the fitting.

I can only speak to '39 / '40. Those (factory installed) fittings didn't have a visible check ball. However, they did have one. It was inside the fitting.

[Bored&Stroked]

Originally Posted by DavidG

With respect, the original tapered grease fittings do indeed have a spring-loaded ball check valve and do not leak any more than the more modern Alemite nippled fittings.

Perhaps you are thinking of the pressed-in fittings sometimes encountered in the tie rod ends. Not all of those had/still have check valves.

Yes, that is what I was thinking/remembering. Good to know that the rest of the fittings have check-balls!

Thanks David!

[JayChicago]

Bit of history trivia
I thought Alemite fittings were different than modern Zerk fittings. Wrong again! Found this write-up on Wikipedia:
"The patent for the Zerk fitting was granted to Oscar U. Zerk in January 1929, and the assignee was the Alemite Manufacturing Corporation. Alemite had already been marketing, since 1919, ball check valves to accept grease supplied under pressure from a grease gun, ......but Zerk's fitting was an improved style, less vulnerable to dirt and more forgiving of angled approach. Today, many companies make these grease fittings."