Manual Steering Lube

[Seamist56]

My project is a 1956 3100 truck but am thinking the question n should apply to any tri five Chevy... What lubricant is recommended for a manual steering (original circulating ball type) gearbox??? My shop manual only says "steering lube", and if it did describe it further, would probably give an obsolete GM #. Thanks, Randy

[5Clint7]

I put regular chassis lube in mine. I read some where that a guy took the fill plug out and drilled and tapped for a grease fitting.

[Rick_L]

I'm going to turn this backwards. Don't know about a truck but do about a car, but they should be similar.

Originally Chevy spec'd gear oil in the steering box for 55 cars. Pretty early on, maybe in late 56/early 57, they issued a service bulletin saying that chassis grease was OK to use. That ended leaks or at least slowed them down enough to be manageable.

If you switch to grease, an easy thing to do is to drill the fill plug on top of the box for a grease fitting.

Edit: looks like Clint beat me to the post.

[markm]

I used white grease in mine tjen converted to 500 PS.