The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The Electrical Bay lubrication cup on distributor

Sorry to ask such a dumb question but I can't find the answer. Lucy a 53 half ton with a 1960 235 engine has been running great. Yesterday I unscrewed the grease cup on the side of the dist housing.




















what type of grease do I put in it and how tight do I screw the cap back on. I've been reading something about turnng the cap every 1000 miles. Can anyone help?

Rusty-

There are no dumb questions...just dumb people. kidding!!!!

I just got done giving the distributor on my 54' a "once-over". I'm not sure if it will be any different for your 60' engine, but if you look here:

http://chevy.oldcarmanualproject.com/shop/1954truck/54ctsm0009.html

Lubrication point number 8 talks about the distributor cup (or Grease Cup). The CL in the circle stands for Chasis Lubricant.

When I took mine off, I removed the entire unit (cap and the part that actually screws into the dist), it looked like it was filled with dirt...(50+ year old grease)

After a good cleaning of the distributor cup and that hole in the distributor that it screws into (make sure not to lose the spring and fibre plug that contacts the dist shaft).

good view here, #'s 2,3 &4:

http://chevy.oldcarmanualproject.com/shop/1954truck/54ctsm1229.html

I simply un-screwed the top, and filled it with grease out of my grease gun, not sure what type, but try to make sure that there aren't any air voids. I put the cap back on and tightened it down just far enough that the threads engaged and grease was coming out the end. Then I re-installed the fibre plug, spring, filled the hole mostly full with grease, and re-installed the distributor cup.

After that, just give 'er a turn ever 1000 miles & you're good!

Hope this helps

These grease cups were designed to fill the cup with grease and then screw the cup on forcing the grease into the bearing. Ever so often you could tighten the cup a little more and force fresh grease into the bearing. For many years we sold grease called cup grease. I don't remember what made it different than other grease.

It needs to be chassis grease as opposed to bearing grease. Bearing grease isn't viscous enough. I tried bearing grease in mine and when I tightened the cup the grease squirted out the edges past the threads. Chassis grease is viscous enough that it won't do that.

Thanks very much for your help folks. I now feel conmfortable taking lucy on a 300 mile road trip.

Cup grease was an extremely stiff type, almost resembling wax. It would not pump through an air-powered grease gun. It was designed to stay put without leaking past the threads on the cup, and it was mostly used on low speed applications where a very thick lube was needed to stay in place. I can remember some wheels and shafts on horsedrawn farm equipment that had grease cups all over the place.
Jerry

This is how mine looked when I tore it down for cleaning. The pics of the disc at the end of the spring shows how it wears after time.