Please understand something that is very important for me to make clear right here: I'm not trying to rain on anyone's corn head grease parade. It is not my style but please let me add some substance to my ramblings.
The proportion is more like 30% 90 weight gear oil and 70% corn head grease. What I want is about twice as thick as liquid shower soap and the key factor is the mixture will go level if you put some in a butter dish and leave it sitting still a few minutes. If it won't, keep adding 90 weight until it does. SAE 200 was about that consistency, but it is hard to compare today as this type of lubricant relies on NLGI ratings...which are different. And which include some confusing factors. You can find SAE 250 but it is synthetic.
Corn head grease is rated NLGI 0 (marked clearly on the tube) but if you look around you will see other products rated as NLGI 0 which can be poured through a funnel and into a steering box whereas corn head grease can't be poured into anything at all. Why? The pourable products are not thixotropic and corn head grease is. That is why it is in a lube tube and why I don't use it by itself for steering gear lubricant. Thixotropic means it will become more fluid-like under stress but then it will thicken when the stress is not there any longer. Not self-leveling by definition. What is my concern? My concern is twofold: the steering box does not generate any heat nor does it operate at elevated rpms so how long before the grease becomes fluid and will that in some way cause extra wear to the steering gear? I doubt it will (on its own) run into all the tiny places it needs to be. Thixotropic grease has been around a long time and GM engineers as far as I know only used it in wheel bearings and throwout bearings...which are fundamentally different.
I can show and tell so let's take a look...The image below is the best picture I can show of a tube of corn head grease that has been sitting upright and undisturbed for 8 years. If it was self-leveling, there would be no peaks and valleys, but you can see there are. The grease clinging to the sides of the tube would have by now slid down and become part of the mix and it hasn't. All that has happened is a bit of the oil has separated out of it. Which you can see. That oil (you can see 3 drops from a bamboo skewer I put into the oil portion and let drip from about 6 inches high) is about 20 weight...like 3 in 1 oil. But there isn't enough separated oil to mix back with the remainder of the grease and make it pourable. I tried this before (years ago) and it did not work at all.
Hope this is helpful. It is why I mix the two. I don't want thixotropy. I want as close to the old static SAE 200 as I can get.
~ Jon 1952 1/2 ton with 1959 235 | T5 with 3.07 rear end
