Re: Lubing 55-56 Torsion-Level

Posted by Tim Cole On 2010/1/16 23:57:36

Most lube service is a waste of time.

Petroleum company research concluded that the number one cause of premature chassis component failure was improper lubrication service. Thus, they developed sealed components.

The major area of concern was failure to clean fittings prior to service.

The second area was that greasing actually exposed wearing surfaces to contamination via disturbance of dirt inside the components.

A third area is leakage which prevents grease from reaching all of the components - especially with regard to king pins.

Next, the vehicle wheels should be off the ground during greasing.

Finally, those fittings that don't accept lubricant have to be repaired.

Now the kicker here is that simply not greasing the vehicle is probably better than doing the job wrong which is how these flat rate dealers get away with the so-called free lube job. The preponderance of science has demonstrated that not greasing the vehicle may actually be beneficial.

This all makes the Bijur system look pretty good on paper except that it only worked for a few years and then broke.

If you are having trouble greasing your car at home the type of grease is also important. For seasonal manual greasing Pennzoil 705 has enough pumpability for a good hand gun and will work for everything on a Packard except U-joints which require an EP additive and wheel bearings which benefit from (GC ratings). Long life and multi-purpose (GC-LB) greases are great in a pressure fed grease gun, but those require either an air supply or a large cash outlay for an electric unit.

Finally, that wonderful show chassis with the sandblast and steam cleaning is a mechanical disaster area because all that dirt and water gets into the components and causes wear and rust.

If you need to clean away years of accumulated grease use a scraper, rags, and a wire brush.

I recently greased a 56 and the rear torsion pivots had never (and I mean never) been greased since the Packard dealers closed.

Take it from me, I do a lot of grease jobs and run into a lot of problems that can only be remedied via TandM.