I have a '60 ford fairlane with recirc ball manual steering & am trying to figure what lub is used. My ford manual says Ford 8BA-19578A lub but can find no info on what it is. should it be a grease or oil? a lot of different opinions, grease, corn head grease, gear oil etc. should it be a grease or oil product?
The reason you get so many different opinions is that it should really be somewhere between grease and oil....and something like corn head grease (or other #0 or #00 weight grease) is just that. It flows more than normal grease, but doesn't run like oil.
Since you posted on both The FB and here, you might want to check out this thread: http://www.skyliner.org/forums/showthread.php?1061-B8A-19578-A-Steering-Gear-Lubricant-alternative Oh, and correct your spelling to L-U-B-E.
I pumped my 56 steering box with chassis grease. Doesn’t leak out been fine for 11 years. Corn head is supposed to be great but the box must be clean before using. I believe stock calls for 90wt gear lube and some use 140wt. when leaks.
Normal weight #2 chassis grease won't flow into the balls, and they might eventually wear out. I've seen it happen. I've also seen gear oil leak out. But you can use whatever you want.
90 weight gear lube is the factory recommendation. Filling it with chassis , or other grease is not the thing to do. The grease does not get worked up to the upper worm bearing. If the unit leaks at the sector shaft bushing, it's time for a new seal. Not a difficult job if you have a pitman arm puller. I had an experience with a service station that serviced our 4 wheel drive '58 Ford truck. For years they used chassis grease to lube the steering knuckles on the front axle instead of the specified 90 weight gear lube. I'm sure they put grease in the steering box, too. That little episode cost them a lot of money to repair the damage.
00 cotton picker spindle grease from Tractor Supply. Some classic car lube company sells this same stuff for steering boxes but with a 200-300% markup. Old Willys Jeep guys use it in turn knuckle housings. Have also heard of cv joint lube being used successfully.
the odd thing is I had a GM 605 steering box rebuilt by Lares Corp. and they filled it with grease and have used grease for yrs. I questioned them about grease and they said they do all Fedex and UPS steering boxes and that's what they always use. also how would I put any kind of lube in? thru a bolt hole in the top?
I used to get the GM steering gear lube, but they quit selling it 10-20 years ago. It was a light grease, that flowed.
Seems they don't understand about the lubricant having to flow....strange. I won't follow their advice.
Hadn't heard of using gear lube for steering knuckles. Is that the difference between having a sleeve type bushing or a needle roller bearing like a u-joint cap?
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