The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Driveline 1938 steering box grease leak

The steering box on my pickup is about 1" from the exhaust pipe, and the pipe runs directly beneath the splash pan which the bottom of the box almost touches the splash pan, so with both splash pans intact and the hood closed the heat really builds up, I could probably bake a potato in there on a 45 minute drive. Anyway no matter what lubricant i try it manages to seep out through the gasket on the (engine side) of the box and leaks down onto the exhaust pipe. In past years I have tried 90w gear oil, 90w gear oil and JD cornhead grease mixed, and just cornhead grease, and the lubricant levels were never full, but just above the sector and worm gear level.
I'm thinking of cleaning out the box and using a high temp wheel bearing grease, any thoughts or suggestions on that scenario?
Check the attached photos:

Thanks,
Glen

Wheel bearing grease will get pushed out of the way and the gears will end up running metal to metal, I did it. The only thing I can think of is remove one of the splash pans or add a air duct from the front running back to the gear box. My '37 has a 250 inline six so I had the pipe made longer to stay away from the gear box.

It's not original, but you could wrap the section of pipe near the steering box with heat wrap made for headers, it works good to keep heat in the pipes. Get the dark grey type and it would look OK.

Thanks for the replies Joe. I'm thinking of removing the steering assembly and take off the side cover gasket and replace it with the gear oil resistant sealer that I used on the U-joint cover ball threaded collar. A little while back I posted on this forum the use of it and I'll add the picture here. Since I keep my truck as close to original I'll keep the splash pans in place but the heat wrap sounds like an idea that would work and I could remove it for AACA shows. Good information on the wheel bearing grease as to why it shouldn't be used; somewhere in a post someone mentioned a grease available from Tractor Supply that is similar to JD cornhead grease.

Thanks,
Glen

Glen - Here's a pretty extensive thread on the "steering box grease" needed for our steering gear boxes.

Lots of really detailed info as well as still accurate links to sources of several products that will support your gear box needs.

Happy reading!

My original gear box had gaskets I made from very thin gasket material, I figured the thick gasket paper would crush over time and throw off the adjustments. If you do pull the cover, and reseal, be sure too re-adjust while you are there. I have had good luck with Anarobic sealer on greasy joints, they didn't get as hot as yours, but did seal good. Another good product is The Right Stuff sealer in the cheese spray cans. That stuff will seal anything and is really hard to get back apart.

Tractor Supply has the lawn mower gear box grease, very similar to JD grease, both are 0 or 00 grade, CV joint grease is also the same grade of grease and might take heat better than some of the others.

If you have had your gear box apart before, then you know about the steel spacer out on the end of the sector gear shaft. I removed that steel spacer and replaced it with a shortened bronze bushing that fit the housing and sector gear shaft, this took out a lot of flex at the end of the sector and pitman arm area. It's the same bushing as the box uses, only cut down in length. It also keeps the seal from leaking since the shaft is held tighter out the end.

Be sure to seal the threads on the side cover bolts, I think two of the four are through bolts in to the grease. I upgraded to the 1940 gear box for the roller bearings and slower gear ratio, it makes parking a lot easier.

Joe

Thanks guys for the interest and information. I have two steering boxes, the original which I redid with NOS worm gear shaft-sector-bushings-gaskets and seal; the other one is an NORS one that a I got 25 years ago and it has had new gaskets and a seal. I have used the new type seal instead of the cork seal on the sector shaft, and they don't leak, it's the side cover gasket that leaks and I have tightend the 4 bolts a couple of times and it the lubricant oozes out there after it gets hot. I'm trying to figure which lubricant to use as this is going to be a winter project, it is a project just to R&R the steering assembly. If the box continues to leak I may put a piece of pig mat under it to hopefully catch the lubricant before it gets on the exhaust pipe.
Thanks again,
Glen

Glen the original GM Steering Box lubricant was sold up through the mid 90s at GM dealership parts departments and I always figured it was really just 00 grade oil mixed with some lithium soap and stress additives. There used to be a sticker on it warning to use nothing but GM lubricant and if that isn't available to be certain to use a self-leveling lubricant until you could get the GM stuff (self-leveling meaning if you pour some into a test tube and then slant the tube the lubricant will remain level with the ground). Corn head grease is not self-leveling...it wasn't designed to be. It is thixotropic grease--for a specific reason. It becomes somewhat thinner when it is stressed but when allowed to rest goes right back to the normal chassis grease-like consistency. If it didn't, the picker (header) would leak all over the place and if the grease is too thick the heads would be ruined. It isn't bad stuff and I usually mix it with 90 weight oil until it is about like Karo syrup. I want it to spread and run into every crevice all the time. Sometimes the worm gear adjusting nut on the front will leak. You can use thread sealer (Permatex) to stop that. You can also use sealer on the side cover bolts. Those will weep when the box gets hot and it can make you think the problem is the gasket when it might not be. Use a good gasket sealer like Permatex 300 or similar and it should be okay. Good luck!

Is this the orifice for checking and filling the lubricant level?

Yes, that's the one.