My steering box is leaking and I want to try corn head grease before I entertain rebuilding it. This may be a dumb question, but I cannot for the life of me find the drain plug on the steering box - 1946 1/2 ton. Any help would be appreciated
There isn't one. If your steering box is in good shape, you can try to suck out any gear oil in there with a suction device which looks similar to a grease gun. If you are lucky, most of the old oil has leaked out. If that is the case, you can just top off what you have with the corn head grease.
1952 5-window - return to "as built" condition | 1950 3100 with a 235 and a T-5 transmission
Squirt a little Diesel fuel in there, spin the steering wheel lock to lock several times with the front wheels off the ground, and use a turkey baster to suck out the diluted grease. Then top things off with corn head grease. Jerry
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RR, if you are interested in checking out an alternative to the J-D Corn Head (NLGI 0) grease, I have some excess Chevron Delo EP 00 grease listed in the Parts for Sale forum. The specs are listed in a couple of the posts there. Only issue with the Chevron product is that it comes in a 5 gal (35 #) pail, so I have extra...
I've done as HRL Jerry suggested to get the old grease loosened up. Works well. Good luck with the project!
Thanks drdoug! I already purchased the J-D Corn Head grease, but I will keep your option in mind. I completed the diesel clean-out, now just have to see if the grease stays in...
RR, sounds good. The grease should stay put. It may seep a bit, but it isn't going to run out.
Mobil actually states in their application info that their NLGI 000 and NLGI 00 grease is recommended instead of heavy gear oil for gearboxes that have "worn or missing seals." I got a chuckle out of that. Well, they do go on to say, that is in order to keep a gearbox in service longer, before a major overhaul...
Roadrunner I plan to clean my steering box and have few questions. How many flushes did you due with diesel fuel? Did you "rinse" with gear oil? Did you drain the diesel fuel out via the side cover lower bolt or were you able to suck it out? Thanks for any info.
When I ”drained” my box, it sat in a concentrated purple decreased for a week so that I could find the metal due to all the nasty grease that was thick or milky. After that, I still had to clean it out!
