76 FJ40 steering box with grease instead of 90w? (1 Viewer)

[South Texas 97]

Not yet ready to rebuild my steering box, but in the interests of replacing all the tie rods and the rag joint, thought I should at least change the steering box oil, 0.6qt of 90W oil. Removed the steering box with the pitman arm attached, you can get it out without removing or at least loosening the fender, but it is a tight squeeze. I had to loosen up the steering shaft mounts as well to give me the space to lift the box off the studs,and a couple of rotations, and levering on the inner fender just a bit, it came out through the wheel well.
Got it cleaned up pretty good, removed the bung, only to find the box full of grease and not oil. It seems to have 5 1/2 turns lock to lock, and there are a couple of places where it seems a bit crunchy.

I put some 90W oil, but it only took about 3 oz, so for now will button it back up, and put it on the list for future work.

One way valve cleaned

ready for some paint, and reinstall

took some measurements

 

[Green Bean]

Very nice work! (I think I read somewhere the old timers would sometimes fill their steering boxes with grease to prolong rebuilding...)

 

[Skreddy]

It is even in the Toyota manual that grease can be used if a suitable repair is not viable, or something like that.

 

[South Texas 97]

Thanks for the quick response, a rebuild of the box is on the list, but not today!

 

[jvincig01]

Thanks for the quick response, a rebuild of the box is on the list, but not today!

So how much grease did you end up putting in it? I am going to do the same to mine.

 

[South Texas 97]

I did not measure exactly but basically filled it up With the grease gun.

 

[Malleus]

Wait, I must be missing something. In post #1 you said you put in 90W oil, but then you used a grease gun? Did you mix them?

 

[ryanwk628]

Wait, I must be missing something. In post #1 you said you put in 90W oil, but then you used a grease gun? Did you mix them?

Worm gears dont care. Very low speed application, and often static so not much for duty cycle. Grease is less likely to leak through worn seals

 

[Malleus]

That wasn't my question

 

[South Texas 97]

Indeed it looks like I mixed som 90w with the existing grease. This is temporary until I get to rebuild it, as there a crunchy bit in the middle of the travel.

 

[AntFarm]

My 79 manual steering box was rebuilt by Straight Line Steering down in California. They recommended that it be filled with grease not oil after the rebuild, which is exactly what they did. It’s been running very well for 8 years now.

 

[brian]

another grease user here, for more years than i recall at this point

 

[AntFarm]

To address your original question, when I went through my steering system rebuild I did a lot of research throughout the forum on oil vs. grease in manual steering boxes. There are a lot of staunch positions on both sides of this issue. In the end I decided to go with the folks at Redhead and Straight Line and use high quality grease with the new rebuild. I’ve been happy with my decision with many road and off road miles for nearly a decade now.