Hot Rods gear lube

A hand pump full of gear oil burst above my head in high school auto shop. The smell and physical sensation of being drenched in gear oil will never leave me. I went home.

 

OK you win..

I recently hauled a freshly pulled trans and dif home in the bed of my pickup, where of course they leaked. Now everywhere I go the aroma follows. Women pinch their noses walking by. Burger King slammed the drive through window on me.

 

Pigs are the best, tough if you’re married, they’ll squeal on ya...

 

This thread reminds me of my first rear gear oil change. When my dad gave me the keys to his ‘57, first thing I wanted was to chrome the rearend cover. Pulled the truck over the pit drained it, took the cover in to get chromed. Week or so later I picked it up, put it on.
Had to sorta wiggle and wedge a funnel up to be able to squeeze the bottle , then wait for what seemed like hours to empty the funnel and repeat.
About the time the 2nd bottle was just making the bubbling sound, I was wondering “how much does this sucker take”?

I went to crawl out of the pit, we have a ladder made from angle iron and pipe cemented in, couldn’t get any traction going to get up the first rung.


Yep, forgot about the drain plug. My “school tennies “ were loaded with it, pit had a puddle that took me forever it seemed to clean up ( choice then was dirt to soak up spills)

Never made that mistake again.

 

Gear lube and road tar fumes both turn my stomach and give me an almost instant headache. Power thru and plan the exit route to go puke when its time to fill an axle. Ive bought my friends cases of beer to come fill an axle for me.

 

I wear rubber gloves. I don't want to think about how much I've absorbed through my skin before I started wearing them. My hands don't look like they haven't been washed...even after repeated scrubbings with different compounds.

 

it wasn't like i was messing with gear lube. i pulled out a few axles i had in storage to measure the splines to determine the spline count. they hadn't been in a housing for at least 15, 20 years. still, in that short amount of time, my hands picked up that gear lube scent that lasted a few days.

 

When I come in the house wreaking of gear lube my wife says it's her favorite cologne on me... It's enhanced with posi-fluid. God I love that woman!
Back in high school I had a '56 Chevy and my buddy was helping me swap in a 4:56 center section. We slid the axles out but were having a bit of trouble getting the pumpkin out. So he went under the car with a chisel and a hammer... right under the diff... before I could stop him, he popped the gasket's seal and the whole Mary-Ann dumped right on his forehead! I'm sorry, but I still laugh every time I think about it and that was 50 years ago!

 

in the seventies chasin' dirt mod racing where ever it was, we would change quick change gears sometimes a couple of times a night depending on how good or bad things were going and where we were. Changing cold or changing hot ....what ever was the case. Hot gear lube generally smelled worse than cold, soaked in worse and the process was generally complicated by doing it laying on yer back in some nasty ass dirt, while somebody was screaming "hurry the fuck up".....ahh.....good times

 

^^^^That's my memory too^^^^

 

You are supose to stink you are Car / Bike folks, add some Old Spice aftershave to be tollerable.

 

Besides time, I've had good luck using tooth paste like a soap to get the stink off hands.

 

Use something stainless to wash your hands with. They even sell stainless bars of soap. Works for me with gas and oil etc...