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What kind of lube do you use?


Beltfed

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I am about to 'wet' my steering box, transmission and Columbia rear end. Care to tell me what you use in these different places? Also getting ready to grease the rear spring, what do you use there? Oh, and how much in each? Thanks

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I use good quality 85W-140 gear oil for both the transmission and rear axle. Originally the steering box just used regular gear oil but I also use the 85W-140 in it. The transmission has a 2-3/4 pint capacity and the standard rear axle has a 4 pint capacity . Not sure how much extra the Columbia will need but maybe an extra pint would be a good place to start and then proceed with the instructions your axle guy recommended. The rear ( or front) springs weren't normally "greased" but I removed a slight "squeak" in my sedan with a spray of Armoral.

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Guest 39 Pickup

For my steering box, I used STP. I have also heard recommendations for Corn Head grease from John Deere. for the steering box as well as the universal joint.

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Peecher, My rear spring has a grease fitting in it. The manual says each leaf has a groove in it (at the center) for the grease to migrate down the spring.

So what the service manual call for, which is 600wt. oil should not be used? I noticed all the Ford parts suppliers list this 600 wt. oil in their catalogs.

What really got me thinking is Lincoln went to a hypoid rear end in 1938. The service manual states that it is essential to use a hypoid lubricate which I'm pretty sure the 600 wt. oil isn't. I don't want to have to get into this rear end again anytime soon so I think I'll go in the direction you suggest. The jury on the tranny is still out. Thanks

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Peecher, My rear spring has a grease fitting in it. The manual says each leaf has a groove in it (at the center) for the grease to migrate down the spring.

So what the service manual call for, which is 600wt. oil should not be used? I noticed all the Ford parts suppliers list this 600 wt. oil in their catalogs.

What really got me thinking is Lincoln went to a hypoid rear end in 1938. The service manual states that it is essential to use a hypoid lubricate which I'm pretty sure the 600 wt. oil isn't. I don't want to have to get into this rear end again anytime soon so I think I'll go in the direction you suggest. The jury on the tranny is still out. Thanks

the modern 85W-140 gear oil has additives for the Hypoid gears. In the early days they had special gear oil for Hypoid gears. It's had to rely on those early specs. I'm not a fan of the 600W gear oil and would not use it in the transmission or rear axle. It might be alright for the steering box? If the lower seal isn't leaking the gear oil should work fine, if not the STP might be the answer. Some of those early Fords did have a grease fitting on the center bolt and lubed the leaves as you described; Believe they just used chassis grease for those apps? If you have grease fitting for yours I'd use MolyEP chassis grease to lube them as I would use it to lube all the grease fittings.

Another alternative lube for the U-joint is a half and half mixture of gear oil and cheap (low drop point) chassis grease.

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Preecher, You plus others have me scratching my head. First off, I have been told by Jim Durall the the Columbia I have is a Ford unit. That's not a bad thing. That's the reason for two fill plugs on the rear end. BTW, I'm checking on if the Lincoln only had one fill plug (info from a different post by another person). Second thing is you stated that only Fords had the greased springs. I knew I had to find the Lincoln shackle studs as the ones on my spring were much larger than the Fords so what the heck is going on? In the Ford Service Bulletin, subject #5000, it states during 1936 a spring having grooved leaves and a lubricator was adopted for Ford cars and Lincoln-Zephyr passenger cars. Not a biggies by any means as I was asking for greasing advice.

As always, your input and advice is very appreciated. I appreciate the fact that many of you realize not all of us were born in the back seat of a Lincoln but do want the public to see how beautiful a car they are and our desire to preserve them.

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After checking the parts book it appears the rear spring did have a lubricator from '36 to '41 and also a lubricator for the front spring from '36 to '40. The '42's and post war cars had liners between the leaves and did not require lube. I suspect the '41 front spring also had liners?

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Just to stir the pot, Dick Flynn, who wrote technical articles for the Early Ford V8 magazine for years, wrote a couple of very informative articles on the use of synthetic lubricants in vintage Fords. He very strongly recommended Amsoil and others because of their superior lubrication qualities, I took his suggestion and am running in my '40 Cabriolet nothing but Amsoil, 20-50 in the engine, gear lube in both the rebuilt transmission and newly rebuilt Columbia and grease for those hundreds of fittings.

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