1937 LaSalle steering gear box lube

[1937 LaSalle coupe]

Hello from Ohio. 1 degree right now. I was looking at my 1937 LaSalle steering gear box. Looks empty. What modern lube would be the best substitute? I guess you fill it up until fluid comes out the hole, right? Thanks... John Lehman... CLC# 26365...

[Alan Harris CLC#1513]

This has come up before. The concensus is that 90 weight gear oil is suitable.

Unfortunately, the puppies LEAK.

A lot of people, myself included, have gone to chassis grease as a substitute. This seems to work OK and has the advantage of not leaking out.

[Tom Beaver]

Both GM and Ford have special grease for steering gear boxes.
It is designed to melt enough to flow at underhood temps to better lubricate but also not to run out of the box.
Normal grease will just get pushed pack in the corners and leave little on the surfaces that need it.
Use Motorcraft XG1-C (Ford # C3AZ-19578-A) steering gear lube (14 1/2 oz tube) or you can use GM 12377985 or Saab 30-08-703. The GM grease is still available
from Corvette Central (which is what I used) and I believe that Ford's is also still available.

Tom Beaver

[Fred Pennington 25635]

CV joint lube works very well, and doesn't leak out. It squeezes out of the tube allot easier then the 1500w or 1200w some use.
Sta-Lube makes it NAPA has it
It will take 4 or 5 tubes to fill the steering box

Fred P.

[Jeff Kay CLC#7630]

I have found that a combination of STP Oil Treatment (about 70%) and 90 weight gear oil (about 30%) works wonderfully.  The STP is cheap, pourable, and is designed to be mixed with oil.  I have used this combination for years on many different 1940's era Cadillacs and LaSalles with great results and no leaks.

Jeff Kay
CLC 7630

[Jeff Maltby 4194]

Jeff. I have both current experience and experience when the cars were new with putting chassis lube in steering boxes of old Cadillacs.

First with the current experience.  I have owned my 40 LaSalle for 10 years and one of the first things that I did was to put chassis lube in the box.  It leaked fluid like s sieve.  That was 10 years ago and so far it hasn't leaked a drop.  In that time I have driven it to 8 consecutive Grand Nationals with out any problems.

And now the old experience.  Since the day they were built leakage of grease from the boxes was a problem.  In the dealership that I worked, it was common practice when we had a complaint, to drain the gear lube out and replace it with chassis lube.  And I remember doing it to cars that were quite new, say 6 months old.

To do it it is best to drain the grease out of the box by loosening the 4 bolts that hold the front bearing cap of the worm gear about 2 turns and let it stand over night.  Tighten the bolts back up and fill the box with Chassis lube.  We made a special tool to do this by getting a pipe plug (1/2" as I remember) and drill and tap the plug so that a Zirck fitting could be installed in it.  This was screwed into the steering box and grease was applied.  In this way you could completely fill the box with grease without any air pockets.

If you try to fill it with grease directly from the grease gun you will get a lot of air trapped in the box.  It works great and is a lot easier to do than re-sealing the box.  Perhaps modern seals will do a better job than the old leather seals that were in common use in the 40's and 50's but this is so easy and works so well that I wouldn't do it any other way.

Frank Decou__________God Bless you Frank. We miss you.

[Jay Friedman]

Though its steering is precise and easy, with no play, my '49's steering box has always leaked.  I put a new gasket on the end cover a couple of years ago, but it did not improve.  Every month or so have had to fill it up. 

After reading this thread and mulling over the alternatives, I bought a ½ liter plastic bottle of Penrite Steering Box Lube for Vintage Cars (anything without rack and pinion steering) from Australia, a grease which flows.  It's sold in the US by Restoration Supply in CA and cost $17, plus about $10 shipping.  When it arrived, I raised the front wheels off the ground, took off the left front wheel to provide better access to the steering box, drained the box and by squeezing the bottle squirted in about 90% of the stuff.  To get it to settle in the box I had to turn the steering wheel from side to side a couple of times between squirts.  Couldn't get it all in, since when the bottle gets low, there is not enough pressure to make it squirt and the steering box was still not full.  I have an old tube of GM Steering Box Lube, also a flowing grease, which had been lying around my garage, so topped it up with that.  It doesn't seem to leak.