Yes you can use gear oil Bob, but unless your seal is in good shape you may get leakage at the sector. Gear oil is what we used to top off the steering gear back in the late 50’s when I worked for a Chevrolet dealer. A leaky sector shaft seal is now and was back then a common problem so checking the steering gear and adding fluid was part of a lub job. However I now use and would suggest the Penrite Steering Box Lubricant.
The steering lubricant has to be fluid enough to flow into the bearing guides. The Penrite and the JD Corn Head grease do that. They have a consistency between grease and oil and will flow into the ball guides to lubricate the balls.
What ever you do stay away from the chassis grease or other heavy greases they will form pockets around the ball guides and starve the balls for lubrication. Heavy grease needs for the surface to get quite warm to flow into the bearings and the steering gear just simply doesn’t do that.
Here are some of the lubricants that some people have suggested over the past four years that I’ve been on the forum:
http://www.pbase.com/dennygraham/image/115320099/large Here is a slump test that I did on all of the choices:
http://www.pbase.com/dennygraham/image/115320139/large Penrite runs about ten bucks a bottle and you have to order it on line, JD Corn Head is available locally and costs a couple bucks a tube. That said, I still opt for the Penrite because it flows better than the JD Grease.
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL
