| Bob Oh | -- 07-10-2018 @ 6:35 PM |
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Greetings: new member here, I want to remove the oil from the steering box. The oil in the box now is a semi-thick, reddish colored lubricant that I've never seen before. Having no drain, what is the usual procedure ? sucking it out with a baster? Or is there another, better way. My aim is to put JD corn head grease in place of the old lube. The car having only been driven buy me a short distance and moved around the garage steers very hard, much harder than I remember my other 36 steering and I was hoping that corn head grease would free it up a bit , I have checked and greased the tie rod ends and king pins. All looks well in that respect, no king pin slop or tie rod end flop. I raised the front end to do the lube and the steering wheel is one finger free lock to lock I would appreciate any suggestions. Bob
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| supereal | -- 07-11-2018 @ 10:31 AM |
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It is very difficult to remove old lube from the steering box without disassembling it due to the baking of the unit from the heat of the adjacent exhaust manifold that usually bakes the lube until it has to be scr*ped out. If there is room, adding some STP will help. As to the difficulty of steering, in this age of universal power steering, it does require extra effort, even if the vehicle is moving. We used to call this "Armstrong steering".
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| TomO | -- 07-12-2018 @ 6:35 AM |
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Bob, I agree with Supereal. I remember that there were some posts about replacing the 36 steering box with a later one to make the steering easier. I found this article by doing a google search. http://goldengatev8.org/tips/SteeringGearSwap35-36/SteeringGearSwap.htm Tom
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| BUCKAWHO | -- 07-13-2018 @ 5:22 AM |
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My opinion....STP is not a lubricant....it is a viscosity index improver, meant to increase the viscosity of motor oil. I see no good reason to add it to a steering box that is already hard to steer. BT
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| cliftford | -- 07-13-2018 @ 5:45 AM |
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I agree.
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| Bob Oh | -- 07-13-2018 @ 11:25 AM |
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Thanks to all who have responded. Just a little recap. I have no intentions of putting STP in it; I want to use the corn head grease. To bring you up to date, I used the baster as a vacuum because the fluid that was in there was thick but still a fluid, not baked to the side or anything like that. It is darn slow but I have gotten some out and am still working to remove the rest. Here's how I did it for info: I put a radiator hose clamp at the bottom of the bulb on the baster so I could squeeze it without loosing vacuum and prevent any leaks. Then I added a small diameter clear plastic hose, maybe 3/8ths and pushed that down around the worm gear until I reached the bottom, then squeeze and wait. The fluid is very thick and may, in fact, be STP, it is that consistency but after a time it starts coming up the tube and wallah, it's working. Now, I wonder if I don't get it all out, will the old mix with the corn head grease. I guess time will tell. Thanks again, Bob
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| JM | -- 07-14-2018 @ 7:23 AM |
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Bob, just a few thoughts on your post..... 1. I use JD Corn Head Grease in my 35 steering boxes mainly because it solved a leakage problem I had when using various other gear lubes. Another side benifit I found with JDCHG is a slight improvement in ease of steering. It's possible that you may not notice any steering improvement in your '36 after switching to JD grease, but it's still worth a try. 2. You could possibly have something wrong with your steering box that may require a rebuild. 3. It might help in the removal of that thick red grease if you apply some heat to the steering box. I'm thinking heat from a hair dryer, not heat from any type of flame. This might thin the viscosity of that thick lube, allowing easier removal. 4. Before I started using the JD grease in my steering boxes, I did some testing to see how it mixed with other gear oils and greases, and found that it mixed well with anything I tried, and did not separate after after a reasonable time limit. John This message was edited by JM on 7-14-18 @ 7:26 AM
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| Bob Oh | -- 07-20-2018 @ 3:30 PM |
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Jm thanks for the response . There may be wear in the box but I will address that later . I do have top shaft bushing with a little slop . Your adding heat was one of my things to try but the storage building has no electric just yet but that's going to change. Good to know that CH Grease mixes well . Bob
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