Steering Box Oil for 1969 P1800

[Badgley]

Hi

Have a bit of a leak in the the steering box so have purchased a service kit but can anyone confirm the oil to be used. Looks to be 80W90 recommend so was thinking maybe this?

http://www.halfords.com/motoring/eng...ep80w90-gl5-1l

Again they offer in a GL4 and a GL5 variant - anyone know which is the better one to go for?

Thanks

[Badgley]

Looks like GL5 is favoured actually in case helps anyone else - saw an article on another forum that recommended this over GL4

[swedishandgerman]

Just one thing - and I know people will frown on this - but in my opinion there’s no reason you can’t syphon all the oil out and replace it with semi-liquid grease. Then you don’t have to go to the ball ache of changing that steering box seal. This is regularly done in the air cooled VW where the seal self destructs on an annual basis which of course now is an MOT failure

[Underdrive]

How about 'one shot grease' used for Land Rover swivel hubs?

[Volvorama]

Don't use grease in a Volvo steering box.

[swedishandgerman]

Originally Posted by Volvorama

Don't use grease in a Volvo steering box.

Don’t see why not myself. Obviously we’re talking about extreme high pressure semi liquid grease here, not just grease

[Uplander]

Liquid grease specifically for steering boxes was recommended to me for a Daimler 2.5 V8 I once owned because of their tendency to leak regularly. Never used it, but I still have it and was considering using it in my '69 1800S at some point.
Simon

[Uplander]

I think this is the one I have, I can double check at the weekend.

http://www.penrite-oil.co.uk/penrite...box-lube-500ml

However, there may be a good reason why Volvo steering boxes can't use it so I'd be interested in more feedback.
Simon

[Derek UK]

No mention on the Penrite product what SAE it is. Jag MKII steering boxes spec'd for SAE160. As long as it's self levelling and not "clumpable" like bearing grease, it should be fine. The lower oil seal on the Volvo box is easy to change IF you have a suitable Pitman arm puller. For normal oil just use the SAE90 used for the diff, that way you don't have to keep 2 bottles for top up and the small increase in viscosity will help a bit with leakage. Someone way back told me he used the STP oil additive neat. Not sure if you can get that now. Maybe a reasonable choice.

[SwallownAmazon]

Originally Posted by Derek UK

Someone way back told me he used the STP oil additive neat. Not sure if you can get that now. Maybe a reasonable choice.

STP and similar additives are low molecular weight polyisobutylene (basically a thick liquid plastic) and have no lubrication properties whatever. All they do is increase the viscosity of an oil - they do nothing for the lubrication properties of oils.

Lithium based greases consist of an oil of unknown properties suspended in lithium based soap to keep the "oil" where it is supposed to be in order to lubricate. You only have to look at the top of a tin of grease which has a plate with a big hole in the middle to make filling a grease gun easier. If said tin of grease hasn't been used for a while, the oil and soap separate on top of the plate. That's why I always use molybdenum disulphide containing greases as that does actually help with lubrication.