Re: '56 Patrician Diff Pinion Seal

Posted by Owen_Dyneto On 2012/6/27 9:15:49

The universals on my 34 which I'm confident are original both have grease nipples but in at least one reference Packard said to lubricate with heavy oil, not grease. I suspect the reasoning was that, as oil leaked out from around the cork seal the centrifugal force from shaft rotation would "feed" new oil from the little reservoir in the center of the joint out to the needle bearings. Grease would be too immobile for that.

Dropping the driveshaft to clean and repack the front and rear universals on a 55/56 isn't really that much of a chore. Randy Berger just did his (more recently that I did mine) and he might comment on the time required - I'd guess about 1.5 hours and doing that once for every 25,000 or so miles isn't really much of a chore, at least IMO. Would I prefer a grease fitting for rear? Yes, but I'd still be dropping the shaft every 10 years or so to clean, inspect and repack the front ball & trunnion.