Don't use Corn Head Grease in Steering Boxes

[19Fordy]

That's the opinion expressed here.
https://www.yesterdaystractors.com/c...oard&th=907455

[philipswanson]

I would never use that stuff and never will. I use Lucas brand 90W wheel hub grease with a stop leak. Never use STP either. It's not a lubricant but a gummy oil thickener.











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[JSeery]

Well, I can see some issues attempting to transfer this to car/truck applications. The steering box on our vehicles is located near the exhaust and is heated for one.

[40cpe]

I copied this from the John Deere site:

Formulated for John Deere corn head and other slow-speed gear cases
-30 to 330 F (-34 to 165 C)

https://www.greenpartstore.com/John-...-AN102562.html

I'm leaning toward the conclusion that the 8N owner had more than just lubrication problems.

[Flathead Fever]

I don't like the fact that the guy mixed the corn head grease and gear oil. All these grease have thickening agents and additives that might not be compatible. One of the reasons wheel bearings fail is using new grease along and not removing the old grease that was not compatible.

I think its just too cold where he lives to use the corn-head grease. But he also should not being using it along with gear oil. Find one type of grease that will work instead of of mixing different types, BAD IDEA.

I have a '32 steering box I rebuilt. New worm and sector, new bushings and a new felt seal between box and the frame. 90W gear oil still seeps out. Runs down the inside of the frame rail. Makes a left turn at the K-member and continues on towards the wishbone and finally to the ground. It barely leaks but it does make a mess after awhile and that is just while its sitting in the garage for a year. Its just a chassis at this point. I don't know what it would do if it was driven and the gear oil was heated up. I bought some corn head grease because everybody swore by it. I have not tried it yet. But when I do I will flush all the gear oil out of the box so I do not contaminate the corn head grease.

[1931 flamingo]

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Penn-Rite steering box lube. No Leakee either. FWIW
Paul in CT

[Flathead Fever]

I'm leaning toward the conclusion that the 8N owner had more than just lubrication problems.[/QUOTE]

That is exactly what I was thinking. Even with no grease it should still turn left. Maybe a little hard but it would not seize up. The steering box is nowhere near any heat that would expand the gears or shafts and lock them up. And why only on left turns and not on the right. If the corn head grease was pushed out from between the gears it would do it in both directions. I think there is more too this story.


I have a '48 8N. I always thought that steering box with its two drag links, one for each side would be neat in some kind center steered,modified, dry lakes racer. It even has the dash and gauges attached to the steering box. You could enter it as number 8N. Also the split wishbones, with the balls on the ends like the back of a wishbone a long with neat brackets the balls fit into would be a neat way of splitting the wishbone on a hot rod instead of the tie rod ends people use. It would be plenty strong. Every once in awhile I hit a big boulder with a front wheel and that split wishbone set-up survives. It will just break you arms when you do it. Its a little violent. I also have a Kubota that's a little bigger. With power steering it doesn't rip the steering wheel out of your hands. I have ten acres of boulders I have been trying to clear. Those poor tractors take a beating.

I've dragged about 100 of these from outback and up to the house for landscaping. I had only the 8N for years. Its pretty much useless in this rock covered ground. I'll never own another tractor again without a front loader. I pull engines with it. I lift something with it almost every day.I unloaded this ore car. Set the forks to the same width as the track and rolled it out of truck and onto the forks.The 8N has become yard art.

[40cpe]

One contributor on the above mentioned tractor forum said:"Polyurea based grease should not be mixed with oil as they are incompatible (JD cornhead grease is Polyurea based)."
I took my idle hands out the shop and put a glob of cornhead grease and an approximately equal amount of 85w-140 gear oil in a pan and mixed it together for a couple of minutes. It SEEMED to mix fine, no globs of CH grease stood separate. The mixture was a green tinted pourable solution that had a greasy feel when rubbed between my fingers, like the pure CH grease. Chemically, I don't know what was altered. While I was there I tried stirring some pure CH grease to see if it would liquefy like in the JD video. It didn't, but maybe my arm gave out too soon.

I'm not a petroleum engineer, so I'm not making any statement with this exercise. I'm merely passing along what I observed.

[1948F-1Pickup]

Can't comment on corn head grease. Never heard of it until I joined this forum.
I will say that a company I worked at previously used to blueprint steering boxes..... very labor intensive process resulting in a pretty large bill for the customer. More germane to this thread however is that the result of this process was a box approximately 3-4 times more accurate than factory new.
The lubricant we used in the boxes was a mix of red synthetic grease and STP oil treatment. Thousands of boxes were done between the early 80's and around 2001. We received zero complaints and many compliments, with a
zero warranty rate.

[G.M.]

Tractors are not the same as early Ford cars and trucks.
In my old Fords 1929 to 1948's I use a low melting temp
chassis lube. I like one with molly in it. Fill it up with the
wheels off the ground turning the steering wheel to work
the grease down into the bottom. The heat from the exhaust
manifold heats the grease making it like gear oil. G.M.
th

[A bones]

When, if ever, I get around to working on my gear box I'll clean it out and use Cornhead grease. It drips now.

I did not read the attachment, but I've seen enough testimonies here, on The Barn to know its a good thing.

[RalphG]

I just added a bit more CHG to the steering box on the 52 Merc this week. Seems to have worked just fine in the Merc and the IH trucks I've put it in. I didn't flush out the old oil, if there was any left in them. I figure it will drain itself over time leaving just the grease. The steering works great and no more leaks on the floor.

[JM 35 Sedan]

I've used JD CHG in the steering box of my '35 fordor (Avatar) since 2013. This has worked fine for me, and I have no plans to change

[rotorwrench]

Ford tractors generally had a gearbox with pitman arms & drag links on both sides so that the front wheels are steered independently if they were row crop types. This makes them a dual steering gearbox. They don't really have a major problem with leakage the way they are designed. I would just use the gear lube in them. There is no need for JD corn header grease.

Tricycle types are different. Some just rotate the post the wheels are mounted to.

[Kube]

I have used JD Cornhead grease in gear boxes for years upon years without any issue whatsoever.
I do make certain that the boxes are thoroughly cleaned of any previous lubricants.
In fact, I am rebuilding a '36 box this week and fully intend to add JD grease to it.

[40ford]

This is good stuff.No leaks in my old gear box.
IMG_0807.jpg

[redmodelt]

From almost the bottom of OP post; "Bottom line: Corn head grease is much too thick for steering gear boxes and will not reflow into voids created by motion displacement when ambient temperature is low."

[Tinker]

JD cornhead grease is semi fluid. https://www.greenpartstore.com/John-...-AN102562.html. I have a case of it, it's certainly less viscous then wheel bearing grease.

I use it for somethings (like the clam/torque tube joint) but haven't used it in a steering box yet. I don't think it needs/should to be used in a transmission gearbox (way to thick). But I can't think of any reason it wouldn't preform in a steering box.

Straight 90 works fine in my steering boxes. Not that I don't think it'll work, just haven't. Maybe after I run out of steam cylinder oil. Which is soon-ish...






.

[JSeery]

Originally Posted by redmodelt

From almost the bottom of OP post; "Bottom line: Corn head grease is much too thick for steering gear boxes and will not reflow into voids created by motion displacement when ambient temperature is low."

If this was correct it wouldn't work very well in the corn head gears would it. The only real difference was it was being used a low temperatures without much of a heat source. The car/truck steering boxes have a heat source whenever the engine is running. Think the real issue was the person in the original thread didn't understand what was going on with his steering gears and blaming the lubricant for other issues.

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q...36&FORM=VDQVAP

[A bones]

Well said JSeery.

By my prejudiced count, this thread has three posts against, five posts indifferent but sharing other experiences that involve boxes that may or may not leak, and ten posts pro the usage of Cornhead grease in steering-gear boxes that previously leaked. Actually that should be nine, as one speaks of usage in restored gear boxes.

If it's good enough for Kube, what more would one need to hear.