- Home
- About Us
- Join/Renew
- Member Benefits
- Member Pages
- Log In
- Help
- Museum Store
I realize this is like asking “what is the best anything”, but I am looking for recommendations on what lubricants my 1603 should use in it is various systems.
In using the search feature, I’ve seen mention of 30W straight weight oil for the engine, also mentions of 20W50. My last service, I dropped the engine oil pan, cleaned all the build up, and ran Castrol 20W50. The engine has good oil pressure, but I am always open to suggestions. For the transmission and overdrive unit, I saw GL1 90W was advised, and those both appear straight forward to service. I saw GL4 140W advised for the differential. Is synthetic or non-synthetic preferred in these applications?
I plan on taking the car on a 200 mile drive in the next month, and want to make sure all the systems are properly lubricated. I have not had any problems come up since I serviced the fuel tank and carbuerators, but the furthest I have driven the car is about 60 miles at a time, although I have put almost 800 miles on it this year. Any suggestions of other items to check and lubricate, such as the steering box, water pump, brake cables, etc is greatly appreciated!
Thank you,
Chris Williams
Hello Chris,
Both GL1 and GL4 are available through NAPA stores, the transmission and O/D have a total of four drain & fill plugs. A “turkey baster” hand oil pump works great.
Steering gear lube, water pump lube and wheel bearing grease are all available through Restoration Supplies in California.
If you’ve not already done so, you will want to consider repacking your wheel bearings.
Several people have commented favorably on this message board regarding Shell Rotella diesel engine oil. Others have noted their use of high zinc ZDDP oil. We use NAPA SAE 30 Non-detergent oil API-SB in our 1601, even though the pan and water jacket have been removed and cleaned now 3 times, our engine with just 35k miles hasn’t been apart, so we don’t want to dislodge any 80 year old gremlins inside it.
Lastly, be sure to take along either a Halon or Halotron fire extinguisher, a small floor jack plus any spare ignition parts you have may come in handy: coil, points, condenser, etc. Good luck on your 200 mile tour.
Stu Blair
As a heads up for all of you non-Californians who want to know what
unbridled eco-terror looks like, in Sept. I went to NAPA for some
non-detergent oil. CARB had ordered them to pull their stocks off the
shelf. A trip to 3 other auto stores came up with the same result.
Slinking across the border(an old California tradition) I found empty
shelves. A search found 1200 boxes in a L.A. NAPA warehouse. I
eventually scored one. Thanks to California’s version of the EPA, we
will not have to suffer the consequences of “toxic”” non-detergent
oil.”
Stu,
Replacing aging fuel lines might save the use of those expensive
Halon fire extinguishers.
T.C.
Tony,
FYI, NAPA’s non-detergent oil is now marketed as “lubricating oil” and is no longer labeled as “motor oil.”
This change was noted on a case of oil purchased a month ago which prompted a call to NAPA’s 1-800 number on the back of the bottle. A customer service rep. at Valvoline answered and explained this change was implemented for compliance with the California EPA’s new requirements. The Valvoline rep. assured the oil was the exact same product as before, the SKU item number remains the same, etc.
As for fuel lines, we’ve replaced the fuel lines, front to back, with new, larger 3/8″ diameter lines and new frame fittings made by John Cislak.
A halotron extinguisher is an inexpensive and effective insurance policy, there’s a lengthy thread on this subject posted in this message board which should convince all of the importance of keeping either a halon or halotron extinguisher in your antique cars.
Stu
Does anyone have a procedure for checking and topping up the steering box gear oil? It is the one fluid on the car I have not checked.
Thanks!
Chris Williams
Because of the forward location of the steering box in 1936-38 cars, filling (at least on my 1601) is through an oiler tube with a spring-loaded oiler cap, which projects through the dust shield.. I’d use GL-1 SAE-140 gear oil unless you have a major leak, applied with a plunger-style oiler. Or you might try SAE=90 if that’s what you have.
You should find a zerk fitting projecting into the wheel well, rather than a spring-loaded oiler cap, if it is OEM. However, that was for oiling the box, not greasing, as indicated by George. I use transmission oil, but any heavy oil would suffice. Oil guns are still available; they are different from grease guns, but use the same zerks.
Even more arcana: Zerks WITH a check ball are for GREASE; zerks WITHOUT a check ball are for oil…..
A CLARIFICATION (I hope) and EXPANSION
Bob Koch and I have discussed zerk “Button-style” fittings and related lubrication issues and we believe that this topic needs some clarification and expansion for the benefit of those who are new to ownership of Pierce-Arrow and other pre-war vehicles.
I based my comment on lack of check balls for zerk OIL fittings on a discussion with an old machinist, now long deceased, who said that the lack of a check ball permitted one to see that the item was full without (slightly) overpressurizing. However, Bob and I know of no zerks produced in the last 60 years or so which do NOT have check balls. One machinery website says that check balls were used on machinery such as lathes (which use oil rather than grease as a lubricant) to prevent debris or other foreign material from entering the lubrication aperture.
Zerks may be used to administer oil of various viscosities OR grease, in both automotive and machinery applications. IT IS IMPORTANT FOR US TO KNOW THE INTENDED LUBRICANT, AND HOW MUCH PRESSURE MAY BE APPLIED.
When PAMCC went to zerks on both Series 80 and Series 33 in 1924, supplanting the old time-consuming 2-pin Alemite fittings, there were no check balls in those early zerks. Those cars were lubed not with semi-solid chassis grease as we know it today but with Pierce-Arrow “Special Compound” AKA 600-W “steam cylinder oil,” dispensed via a pistol-grip, push-type, small dispenser shown in tool lists as “compressor, grease.” Therefore, THE PRESENCE OF A ZERK FITTING IS NOT AN INDICATION THAT CHASSIS GREASE IS THE PROPER LUBRICANT. From all I’ve seen, 600-W and similar heavy oils were referred to as “grease” and sometimes as “liquid grease” in maintenance instructions with later disastrous results especially on Series 80 where owners have applied modern grease guns to dispense chassis grease through the zerk on the steering box and have blown out the seals—and chassis grease channels and does not lubricate properly.
(In the most general sense, semi-solid grease was called “cup grease” through the 1920s.)
Pierce-Arrow steering boxes through 1928 used the same 600-W as in their transmissions and (non-hypoid) differentials, NOT semi-solid chassis grease as one might expect from seeing a zerk fitting. The tool kit’s “compressor, grease” dispensed a small amount of 600-W with each push. This was also the dispenser for spring shackles and all other points equipped with zerks—and the reason why lubrication intervals were so frequent. On my steering boxes which have either Alemite 2-pin or zerk fittings on their steering boxes, I remove the fitting and use a syringe to top off the steering box with the appropriate lubricant—for fear of overpressurizing.
How much pressure may be applied: Some of you may be familiar with the zerk-fitting-equipped water pumps on 1937-48 Cadillac flathead V-8s. These pumps were designed to be serviced with water pump grease by small (6-8 inches long) grease guns with a T-handle on the end which screwed into the housing to force a very small amount of grease at LOW pressure into the fitting. Using a lever-arm grease gun (about 3,000 psi), or even worse an air-powered grease gun, will blow the seals and cause the pump to leak badly. Owners of these cars (I owned a 1939 Series 75 for 40 years) usually substitute a grease cup such as we have on our distributors, and install the zerk only for judging. So it is important to know the tools specified at the time for dispensing specific lubricants.
At last, back to the 1936-38 steering boxes: They take gear oil, not grease, even if they have a zerk fitting. And the check ball is of no consequence for our purposes.
Thank you for the due diligence on this topic George!
Thank you for all the information! That is fantastic. I will look again, as I must have missed the fitting, but honestly I was looking for more of a “fill hole” on the box itself with a mirror, and probably overlooked the service point. I kept thinking “surely they would have made this easier to get to for servicing…”