Great information. Think I'll keep the old fluid in my car. Aren't the break systems sealed? If so how does the moisture get in? Seems I have had cars where the wheel cylinders were very rusty inside but after rebuild were fine. Thought maybe the car sat under water or something.
My 1973 Charger is still on it's original wheel cylinders and is rust free. The master cylinder has been replaced because it would leak down at stop lights. Don't remember any rust. Always thought that the moisture got in because the internal rubber was bad not the other way around.

Hi Kev,
I wasn't aware of the problem caused by the break fluid. What is the advantage of using silicon fluid?

Bob

Reading all the posts regarding the break light switch was very interesting however I don't understand why when something is broken the whole system needs to be redesigned. Break pressure switches have worked well on many cars for many years and still do. The problem was not with the design it was simply a bad switch. Am I missing something?

Can anyone recommend an outlet for an original style harness for my 51 300? Would like to maintain an origional appearance.

Bob

Thanks for all the response. I have a few more questions for you guys. Does the yoke bottom out on a shoulder cut on the pinion shaft? In other words when you torque the nut to the 200 to 300 foot pounds are you applying that pressure to the bearing or are you just tightening the the nut against a shoulder stop on the pinion shaft behind the yoke. With out some kind of shoulder it would be like tightening a wheel bearing nut to 300 pounds. Way too much. The book says wheel bearings are supposed to be torqued to 20 foot pounds and then backed off one flat of the nut. Sense I'm not replacing any of the internal parts the idea of a spacer installed in front of the yoke makes good sense to me. It would allow for the crush sleeve to crush a little more hence resetting the bearing preload.

A side line story to this is I once replaced the pinion seal on my 1955 Olds 88 and was not sure how tight the nut should be so I set it like you would set a wheel bearing nut. Needless to say the nut was not tight enough and backed off because of normal vibration. I was on a trip and noticed some slop in the drive train but kept on plugging a head . I got to where I was going and pulled off the freeway. I got a couple of blocks and the nut fell off. The whole drive shaft pulled out of the differential and dropped down and fell out of the car. Couldn't believe seeing my drive shaft on the street from my rear view mirror. That's mainly why I am paranoid about doing this again. I'm really lucky this happened at 10 to 15 MPH on a surface street and not on the freeway at 75.


Bob

I replaced the pinion shaft oil seal on the differential of my 51 300. The nut that held the yoke in came off with very little torque (too easy). I need help figuring out what to torque the nut back to. The book says to torque it from 300 to 325 foot pounds. This seems way too high. The book says to note the torque it takes to overcome the friction of the new seal and add 2 1/2 to 3 foot pounds too it for a total of say 4 1/2 foot lbs. This can't be the overall torque for the nut. I read it to mean the torque it takes to over come the seal drag plus the bearing friction after the torque on the nut is correct. There is no way to measure over all force to turn the pinion shaft that I know of without removing the rest of the universal and leaving only the pinion shaft in the housing.


Can Anyone help me? What should I torque the nut to if nothing else has been changed except the seal?


Thanks, Bob

Does anyone know what the URL is for Joel Ray or Sandy Chirco? Want to see what packard parts they have for sale.

Bob

Hi There, Her's my two cents worth.
I'm not sure what you mean by "loosening the nut is out of the question." If you are talking about the large nut on the end of the Axel with the cotter pin thru it you must pull the cotter pin and back off the nut. Otherwise no amount of banging will help. I always back the nut out so it's outside surface is flush with the end of the Axel. Then everyone is right. Keep banging on the puller with the hammer until the drum pops loose.

Good to know. The oil pressure hot is around 35/36 pounds. I have read that the oil pressure at 35 miles per hour should be 40 pounds. My engine has about 60K on it right now. I did once run 20/50 oil but thought the oil pressure was too high. Was thinking that the thicker oil might not cool the bearings as well because of the slower flow rate. When very hot the engine idles at around 23 pounds on 10W40 oil. DO you think this is OK? Bob

I was in the Navy in 72. Moved to Hayward in 1986. Do you remember Ye Olde Pizza Joynt With its Wurlitzer theater organ?

OK I'm confused now. Hadn't known anything about the removal of zinc from our oil. For that matter I didn't know the oil contained zinc. I run a 327 with 58000 miles on it and use 10 W 40 oil right now. Should I go up to 20 W 50 ?

Bob


BTW, Changed the cam and lifters in my Dad's 51 V8 Studebaker back in 1966 because two of the lobes on the cam wore flat. Funny thing, The problem with that car didn't show itself until the plugs were changed once. The engine started firing back thru the carb. The old plug was fouled so the bad cylinder didn't try to fire. When the plugs were replaced the bad cylinder would try but with a perpetually closed exhaust valve the fire didn't have any place to go except back out the intake when the intake valve opened again. Had to pull the plug wire off To stop the firing thru the carb. That old Stude still drove pretty good on 7 and after a wile 6 cylinders.

The 51 Stude was my first drive in movie car.