Those type of 'grease' fittings showing in your photo are called Alemite fittings. I think they switched over to zerk fittings in the early 1930s.
I remember a judging issue at a VCCA car show where two 1932 cars had an identical number of points and the tie breaker came down to the type of grease fittings. One had zerks, the other had Alemite. The judges determined that the one with the zerks was not correct, so the car with the Alemites won best of class. ;-) But, this is slightly off topic.
I use high temp bearing grease for these bearings. On Lurch, there are grease cups (not grease fittings), so I just filled the grease cup and turn them down once per year or so.
The original outer oil seal was made of felt. I switched it out for an SKF 16404 neoprene oil seal. My main reason for the swap was to keep the grease out of the brake area.
There might be an inner seal too, but I never dug in that far to find out. I figure that if a little bearing grease gets mixed up in the rear axle oil, that's not a bad thing.
I suggest carefully measuring the diameter of the axle where the seal contacts it. Then go to a local bearing house with the axle measurement, the oil-seal housing, and the old felt seal. They should be able to find you a neoprene seal that drops right into the old space that held the felt seal.
Cheers, Dean
Last edited by Rustoholic; 09/22/2024 5:35 PM. Reason: added verbiage
