1940 Steering Box --- Oil vs. Grease

[LUCK R]

So my steering box has just been rebuilt and is ready for install,
what is best, pack full of grease or fill with heavy oil. Any opinions.
CR.

[J Franklin]

Look in the service or owners manual, it should say. If I can find a lube chart I'll report but I am feeling lazy right now.

[blucar]

If your steering gears have just been rebuilt, use a heavy gear oil.. 140w. Grease/chassis lube only works on worn out units that can't hold oil... Another option is the Motor Honey", STP type of lubricants... You will have to warm the motor honey oils in the sun, etc, so that they can be pored into the gear box....Bill

[Pete]

Originally Posted by LUCK R

So my steering box has just been rebuilt and is ready for install,
what is best, pack full of grease or fill with heavy oil. Any opinions.
CR.

Here's something I lifted from another website..

First off we are talking about steering gears with a worm and roller or a worm and pin as typical in old Fords.
With the car sitting on the floor rig up a spring scale to the steering wheel rim so you can measure force needed to move
the front wheels..Rig a dial indicator on the left front tire to measure movement..With plain 90w or 140w oil in the steering
box and the wheels set straight ahead pull on the scale untill the front wheel moves say 2 inches and record the scale
reading..Repeat several times to get a good number..The actual number does not matter..
Now, drain the steering box completely..This may take overnight or longer if you have some really thick goo in it..Refill with a
mixture of 50% 90w and 50% POWERPUNCH..
Cycle the steering completely back and forth several times.
Now, repeat the former test and record the results..
The force required will be considerably less.
If you don't want to be bothered with all this just take it out and drive it.
We have had a lot of people come back and say it now feels like power steering.
I personally use straight POWERPUNCH because I don't like to be bothered mixing the stuff.

[Ken/Alabama]

And where do I get Powerpunch ?

[rotorwrench]

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Semi fluid lubes like John Deere corn head lube work pretty well and won't leak out when the seal gets worn. The stuff was developed for sickle bar gearboxes on grain headers and on corn headers for John Deere combine harvesters.

[Ole Don]

I used straight 100% STP. It was in there not leaking years later when the car was sold.

[Don]

I used Lucus gear oil ,feel like power steering and no leaks

[TomT/Williamsburg]

In a leaky box I had on my first 40 coupe I filled it with some type of gear oil and a good amount of Slick 50 or STP - that stuff sticks to metal and takes years and years for it to ooze out, if ever.

[Seth Swoboda]

I put John Deere Multi Lube in the steering box on the 39. No leaks.

[Bruce Lancaster]

Open glove compartment, discard little book thing with idiotic specific information from Ford.
Select random goo from dozens of proferred internet opinions.
All set!

[Vic Piano]

C'mon Bruce, You know that there have been significant improvements in petroleum products over the years, some may even render 70+ year old “Ford recommendations” irrelevant. STP has been around at least as long as I've been playing with Flathead's (mid '60's) and I've always used it in the steering box. I'd hardly refer to it (STP) as random goo and I'd venture to guess that most, if not all, responders here on the FordBarn have more then a modicum of experience relevant to the subject matter... I'm just sayin'.

How do you feel about MMO in our old Fords?

[Bruce Lancaster]

There have been RADICAL improvemnts to both petroleum and synthetic based lubes...probably everything you can buy now is better than in Henry's day, and some is lots better. So...if you read your manual and go to the car store and ask for what the manual says...which is going to be 90 or 140 gear oil...you will get the new stuff, not something that was canned in 1940. The low end stuff will be dead dinosaur still but improved with new formulations of the EP additives needed for the curved gear contact shapes, the high end will be whoknowswhat synthetics formulated with the same issues in mind...keep those gears slippery and unworn. The point is that these are substances made for use on gears, and have the EP additives designed for the sliding and rolling contact issues in complex shaped parts. Ford insisted on these specialized gear oils from 1932, about when the stuff was developed to cope with the emerging use of gears with non-spur designs.
STP is a thickener for motor oil...not even made to be a lubricant without the oil it supplements, and made for an oil designed to cope with pressurized simple bearings...
The point is, non-spur gear stuff has a lot of needs and good, modern stuff that is better than 1940 goo is readily availaable, sold under the same nomenclature as the old dinosaur oil and designed for exactly the same sort of specialized need...gears.
Why not use gear oil on gears, rather than engine additives? Ask STP what provisions their stuff has for EP intensive gear use...they will likely just point out that the stuff is made for use in engines and in oil!

[Pete]

Originally Posted by Ken/Alabama

And where do I get Powerpunch ?

I get it at NAPA.
STP, Justice Brothers, Bardahl and several others make the same type stuff.

[bbrocksr]

Originally Posted by Bruce Lancaster

There have been RADICAL improvemnts to both petroleum and synthetic based lubes...probably everything you can buy now is better than in Henry's day, and some is lots better. So...if you read your manual and go to the car store and ask for what the manual says...which is going to be 90 or 140 gear oil...you will get the new stuff, not something that was canned in 1940. The low end stuff will be dead dinosaur still but improved with new formulations of the EP additives needed for the curved gear contact shapes, the high end will be whoknowswhat synthetics formulated with the same issues in mind...keep those gears slippery and unworn. The point is that these are substances made for use on gears, and have the EP additives designed for the sliding and rolling contact issues in complex shaped parts. Ford insisted on these specialized gear oils from 1932, about when the stuff was developed to cope with the emerging use of gears with non-spur designs.
STP is a thickener for motor oil...not even made to be a lubricant without the oil it supplements, and made for an oil designed to cope with pressurized simple bearings...
The point is, non-spur gear stuff has a lot of needs and good, modern stuff that is better than 1940 goo is readily availaable, sold under the same nomenclature as the old dinosaur oil and designed for exactly the same sort of specialized need...gears.
Why not use gear oil on gears, rather than engine additives? Ask STP what provisions their stuff has for EP intensive gear use...they will likely just point out that the stuff is made for use in engines and in oil!

Now that was a real answer! Thanks Bruce
Bill

[peewee2you]

Luck, Being you say it's rebuilt and ready to go, I am an old school believer or simply keep as Henry intended, using the proper oil, which seems to be 90W or 140W, I tend to think it's 90W.

I just recently had mine filled with 90W oil, being I had it aligned etc., figured go ahead and check that, well it was empty, good reason overnite it spilled out, leaking like a siv, now reading this thread and hearing about this John Deere Corn Head Grease? Got me to thinking, I don't want to pull it apart right now, trying to drive it and put some miles on it, so I came across this youtube video, which is quite interesting especially the part about leaking seals, check it out, may not be a bad idea even if it's rebuilt, probably will guarantee no leaks and will surely keep it lubed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UEwk_sYP6A8
The only question I have is pumping it in there and hoping it gets completely full, I am sure that in any event, will get enough in.

[Bruce Lancaster]

On the leak...try to see if leak is at bottom of box bolt on plate area or at sector. Sector is harder to stop up...if at bottom, order a gasket, drop the plate down there, unplug horn connection and change gasket. Check over the tube to be sure it is solid...it runs up to above oil level so oil cannot run out horn hole.
If you must go to grease be sure it is at the light end of greases as it must be able to flow...the moving parts will just carve a permanent hole in heavy grease, then die from lack of lube.

[rotorwrench]

The Thixotropic grease is pretty amazing stuff. John Deere isn't the only producer of it either. It can be drawn into a lubricating gun and pushed right into the component that requires it. John Deere's is NGLI #0 others like Royal cotton picker spindle grease are NGLI #00 so they are a bit less like pudding when at rest. Once stuff gets moving, it turns right back to a liquid.

The gear oil usually will stay in the steering boxes if you insure the horn wire tube and the sector shaft seal are good to go as Bruce mentioned. The corn head type grease is good for components that are just hard to keep any other type of lubricant in like old worn steering boxes and torque tube universal joints. The gear oil will come out without flushing the component so it's still the easiest lubricant to use from a service standpoint since all you have to do is drain & refill at regular service intervals like the little book in the glove box sez.

[Henry/Kokomo]

I've used a Penrite (SP?) product with excellent results in my '46 with a tired steering box. BTW, what is Powerpunch and who handles the product?

[Vic Piano]

Originally Posted by Bruce Lancaster

There have been RADICAL improvemnts to both petroleum and synthetic based lubes...probably everything you can buy now is better than in Henry's day, and some is lots better. So...if you read your manual and go to the car store and ask for what the manual says...which is going to be 90 or 140 gear oil...you will get the new stuff, not something that was canned in 1940. The low end stuff will be dead dinosaur still but improved with new formulations of the EP additives needed for the curved gear contact shapes, the high end will be whoknowswhat synthetics formulated with the same issues in mind...keep those gears slippery and unworn. The point is that these are substances made for use on gears, and have the EP additives designed for the sliding and rolling contact issues in complex shaped parts. Ford insisted on these specialized gear oils from 1932, about when the stuff was developed to cope with the emerging use of gears with non-spur designs.
STP is a thickener for motor oil...not even made to be a lubricant without the oil it supplements, and made for an oil designed to cope with pressurized simple bearings...
The point is, non-spur gear stuff has a lot of needs and good, modern stuff that is better than 1940 goo is readily availaable, sold under the same nomenclature as the old dinosaur oil and designed for exactly the same sort of specialized need...gears.
Why not use gear oil on gears, rather than engine additives? Ask STP what provisions their stuff has for EP intensive gear use...they will likely just point out that the stuff is made for use in engines and in oil!

That’s very interesting… Thanks. What about MMO, that stuff was made for sewing machines, never intended to be used on cars... but it works...I use 85-140 in the transmissions and rear ends and I think I'll stick with STP in the steering boxes as it has worked fine for me for over 45 years.

[jimTN]

Never use plain grease in a steering box, fix the leaks or keep filling it with STP. Reason is that the top bearing on the worm gets dry when the plain grease settles down and scrunch starts. Many many 8N tractor steering gears have been ruint with plain grease.

[ct1932ford]

Originally Posted by rotorwrench

Semi fluid lubes like John Deere corn head lube work pretty well and won't leak out when the seal gets worn. The stuff was developed for sickle bar gearboxes on grain headers and on corn headers for John Deere combine harvesters.

That's what I have been using. So far so good!

[columbiA]

In flat heads that Ive owned,I used the 600 W that is sold by the vendors for model A rear ends trans & steering gears.It is about the equivalent of 250 weight oil & comes in a 1 qt plastic squeese bottle.

[49r]

Penrite steering box lube. Like treacle. Good stuff.