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stiff steering
Anything and everything Herald. Talk about anything from the first 948s to the last 13/60s.
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Posted By : Ian Thomas, 16-Jun-2004, 07:33am
Boot rack and fire episode now behind me it,s now time to look at my stiff steering.Either i,ve forgotten that 13/60 is heavy to steer? or something needs
to be looked at.Tyre pressures ok,done lower steering arms,steering box...once you have connected a grease nipple book slightly unclear as to what to pump
in....grease or oil?One book says oil..cant get oil in a grease gun or am i being daft again.THANKS for all help on other subjects.
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Posted By : Tim Everitt, 16-Jun-2004,
12:07pm
It should be gear oil. There is a reservoir to hold it once it's in. I don't know how to keep oil in a grease gun either tho. I'd be interested to
hear. You can use grease, I have for years, but you do need to keep greasing them on a very regular basis.
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Posted By : James Carruthers, 16-Jun-2004,
12:20pm
Use a pump action grease gun if you don't want oil to go everywhere...
Halfords sell them - little black things with a red top.
James
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Posted By : Ian Thomas, 16-Jun-2004,
09:44pm
THANKS Guys,filled with grease,so will see what happens...
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Posted By : William Davies,
16-Jun-2004, 11:14pm
Take real care - see my other post for my concerns about this approach. I had a friend once snap a vertical link at 70mph in the outside
lane of the M4.
Cheers,
Bill.
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Posted By : Ian Thomas,
17-Jun-2004, 09:09am
Thanks Bill,yes there is grease in trunnion,so pump with oil over a period..best oil for job would be? once i know this i will start to
try and flush out old stuff.
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Posted By : William
Davies, 17-Jun-2004, 09:34am
Use EP90 or EP80/90 gear oil. While the API spec isn't critical in this application, it's good practice to avoid API GL5 anywhere
in our cars, stick to GL4 and the wrong stuff won't inadvertently get put in the gearbox.
Cheers,
Bill.
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Posted By : William Davies,
16-Jun-2004, 09:57pm
Hi Tim,
There are a number of good reasons for using oil, the best argument against grease is it's ability to produce cavities where no lubrication is
present. If the original poster's steering is particularly heavy I would recommend stripping down the vertical link to inspect the threads at the
earliest opportunity. Stiff steering equates to old and hard grease (not oil) in the trunnion. Usually this goes hands in hand with rust at the top
of the threads, where water has found it's way around the hardened lumps of grease. Rust here is the usual cause of a broken vertical link.
As a short term measure, pumping oil into a trunnion filled with hard grease will help loosen what's there already. Repeating the process several
times over a few weeks will gradually flush out the old grease by dilution - fresh grease won't do this.
Still no substitute for a full stripdown though,
Cheers,
Bill.