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Triumph TR6 - oil in steering rack?

Hi guys,
My Brithish Leyland TR6 maintenance manual published
1975 says to use multipurpose grease in steering rack
and tie rod ball joints when doing a rebuild.
But the guy I buy all my British parts from and a very
knowledgable TR guy he is, said that the rack and the ball joints should have 90 W oil and not grease.
He mentioned some of the guys that he knows that do
Solo 1 racing use oil and swear by it.
Any coments?
Christopher Trace

Hi Chris

The following is from Penrite oil.

For gear oils, may I suggest our Gear Oil 30 and Gear Oil 40 which will cope a lot better in a gearbox than a engine oil will. It will also make changing gear a lot easier particularly in cold mornings. For rear axles as I've mentioned already do not use a modern GL5 rated Hypoid gear oil in an early rear axle that would normally have taken a EP gear oil. By the way, these early gear oils were often listed as 80,90,140 grades, with words such as "Spirex", "HD","EP","Hypoy" etc. Rack and pinion steering takes the same oil as the rear axle and NOT a heavy grease.

This is the entire article very informative re new oils and old cars. Especialy tranny lubes for the brits.

http://www.moreg.org.au/penrite.htm

This is there website.

http://www.penrite.com.au/homepage.htm

Bill







Bill Brayford

Thanks Bill,
interesting site. What do you use oil or grease?
Christopher Trace

Hi Chris

Was using Castrol Hypoy C 80/90 from Trfs Canadian dist. from about 15 years ago jug ran out. So did they.

My nephew into the Hershy concours prewar cars told me to talk to Penrite because of old car metals incompatability with new additives sold under the same old name and rating? But with the new and improved to XXX rating for Honda etc..

I didn't think I was "that old" but I guess a lot has changed in metalurgy in the past 30 years never mind 70.

I guess we need some good old geneticly unaltered, organic oils that need to be changed once in a while.

Haven't bought any yet as I am in rebuilding stage but likly will.

Bill





Bill Brayford

Just curious--how does the oil stay on the contact surfaces? What about the ball and socket joints at the ends of the rack that are supposed to be packed with grease when you remove the gaiters?

Rick O.
Rick Orthen

Chris
tried to send u an e-mail but came back as undeliverable to posred e-mail address...has it changed? send me an e-mail if new address.
Rick C
Rick Crawford

Rick O,
As I understand it there is not supose to be any grease, the rubber gaiters are sealed or should be
and the heavy 90W oil sloshes around every time you take a bump or turn a corner. There would always be
a pool in the bottom of the pinnion cavitiy and as the rack moves sideways when steering the teeth of the rack would carry some oil sideways along the shaft.
There would also be pools of oil in the bottoms of the gaiter bellows. The only real problem I can see is
making sure you get a really good seal at both ends
of the gaiter. There is no brass or bronze in my rack
so I don't think the high sulfer content in modern HP
oils will attack anything, but will have to get some
of that new "old" oil from Penrite for the trunions.
Christopher Trace

Chris--Thanks for the info, now that I just finished greasing the rack jper the owner's manual. Oh well . . . I don't know if you have Pep Boys up north, but I bought a 5-gallon pail of GL-4 gear lube from them last month for US$21.00. TRF charges about $6.00 a quart, which makes this pail worth $120!

Rick O.
Rick Orthen

Hi Chris and all

I am not pushing Penrite. The stuff I read seems to be of interest and Tim liked it.

I would imagine most companies have some products for older vehicles. I only brought it up from info I've seen. And there sight has quite a bit of help on the old cars.

Bill
Bill Brayford

This thread was discussed between 08/02/2003 and 10/02/2003

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