Joined: Jan 10, 2006 Posts: 136 Location: Russellville, AR
Posted: Mon Dec 18, 2006 9:23 pm Post subject: What the best grease to use for the front steering knuckles?
I am about to replace my knuckle wipers on my front axle on my M38. The TM says to use grease and fill to level. (That would take forever in a grease gun wouldnt it?) Whats the best type of grease to use in that application?
This is almost as painful a topic as what is the correct OD color!
First of all they are not to be pressure filled using a grease gun.
With the ball spheres in pretty shiney new shape and all seals and bearings in good shape 80/120 hypoid gear oil will work. It may still seep a little in 80 to 100 degree areas. But will not slow you down to a crawl when the outside air temp hits 0 degrees.
Otherwise most folks subscribe to the "Knuckle Pudding" solution. This is a mixture of gear oil and chassis grease. Pick your own viscocity depending on the climate.
These jeeps were originally expected to be used by our armed forces and operated in a fleet type environment. This allowed a very strong and prompt service schedule. So every 6,000 miles or whenever they suspected water or dirt contamination of the lube in the knuckle it got DISASSEMBLED, CLEANED AND REPACKED. Out here in the civvy world this over servicing busy schedule is not acceptable. No one out here wants to disasemble their steering knuckles every 6,000 miles on their daily driver jeep to clean and repack.
If you examine the knuckles you'll note that the steering pivot (king pin) bearings (especially the upper) will not get grease in them unless you disassemble and repack by hand. But if you use a syrup type knuckle pudding the slinging action will keep them lubed.
This should help you draw your own conclusions.
My suggestion is (if you have great knuckle sphere surfaces and seals) do the initial disassemble, clean and repack with a good moisture dispelling chassis grease. Run that in for a few hundred miles then concoct your knuckle pudding, remove the plug ( or grease zerk) , get the pudding warm and thinnish and pump it in. If your knuckle spheres are rough then stay with the chassis lube unless you are willing to tolerate a little seepage now and then. _________________ Wes K
45 MB, 51 M38, 54 M37, 66 M101A1, 60 CJ5, 76 DJ5D, 47Bantam T3-C & 5? M100
knuckle pudding, mix 50/50 (+/- ) wheel bearing grease and gear oil, when I say mix i mean use an old electric hand mixer or something, you want it to almost stand up (almost) you can easily load this into a greasegun with empty tube just spoon it in, this is also used in the steering box, you can also buy cv axle greese at a parts store, comes in small packets and pricey, or goto a land rover dealer they sell it also pricey, I used plain brown wheel bearing grease and 80w/90 gear oil limited slip( what i had) not sure about using red or blue grease, the right consistancy should be jelly enough to stick and cause minimal leaking but liquid enough so as not to be slung away from the ball bearings and stick to the walls hope this helps.
my jeep is 46 and has large fill plugs at the joints like the rears do so the greasegun end fits easily in the hole, steering box has a grease fitting
You'll have to specify type wheel bearing grease. The fiber type high speed, high temp, high load pressure is not the stuff to use. The class of grease in the wheel bearing grease you try to use must be compatible with the gear oil you're mixing it with. Grease is a very abused word in out lanquage. There are soap based, moly based, synthetic based and on and on. The majority of us have M38's and M38A1's which have the grease fitting on the knuckle. Do not force grease into these fittings with a grease gun. The grease will find it's way to places you don't want it.
Chassis lube or chassis lube/gear oil mix is in my opinion the right stuff to be using if you are putting it in the knuckle. _________________ Wes K
45 MB, 51 M38, 54 M37, 66 M101A1, 60 CJ5, 76 DJ5D, 47Bantam T3-C & 5? M100
wes you are correct, as I said I am not sure about the blue water repel , or red high speed grease, i use the brown grease i have in a 5 gallon bucket, it is for chassis lube and drum brake wheel bearings when i get to dads next time i will see what type the bucket actualy says do you have a pic of the knuckle where the fluid is added? thanks, this is also known as knuckle butter hope some of this helps
here is a link, scroll down the page there are discusions about lubricants for old jeeps
Joined: Apr 15, 2005 Posts: 133 Location: Up State SC
Posted: Wed Dec 20, 2006 1:02 pm Post subject:
Mix up the pudding. Then get a gallon sized freezer (heaver plastic) Ziploc bag. Pour / spoon the pudding into the bag. Cut one of the corners off near the very corner. Put the cutoff corner in the screw hole access plug and squeeze. Don’t get carried away and squeeze too hard. When done throw bag and mess away.
Joined: Jan 10, 2006 Posts: 136 Location: Russellville, AR
Posted: Thu Dec 21, 2006 9:59 am Post subject:
My front end may not be original. It has the big fill plug for a 1/2 ratchet on the knuckle. I was looking at the tm last night and it showed a picture of the knuckle and it had the large fill plug too?
I know the gear ratio is correct b/c ive had it in 4wd on hard dirt before and had no binding.
How would I determine what my front end is supposed to be for?
Here's what the knuckle looks like. If you look closely at the lubricant level you will see it's quite obvious no matter what concoction you fill the knuckle with the level of the filler port will not ensure long term lubrication of the top pivot bearing (king pin).
This is why so many of these old jeeps develope the death rattle shimmy when the top pivot bearing fails. This is why the knuckle must be disasembled periodically so that top bearing can be repacked with real chassis grease.
Posted: Fri Jan 12, 2007 7:35 pm Post subject: steering knuckle lube
You can take an old fire extingisher and solder or braze in an air fitting; take off the top and put your lube in it and then pressurize it a bit and the fluid will squirt right in..I have this kind of setup to put gear oil in my transmission/transfer case and differentials....I dont see why this would not be an excellent way to easily push some goo into the knuckles. I always used 90wt in the winter and 140 in the summer and never done any research into what was actually used. I just put up with the seepage.
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When done throw bag and mess away. 
