Packard Forum Index » Pre-War (1899-1942)

Hello all,
I'm curious what folks are using to lubricate the universal joints at each end of the drive shaft on the pre-war cars. I have heard the goal is to use something as "sticky" as possible. Possible options that come to mind are "red and tacky" made by Lucas and Sta-lube Drum Brake grease. Anyone care to offer some advice?

John Wogec

Assuming those are needle bearings, I don't see why a high-quality #2 or #1 grease wouldn't be appropriate. Only concern might be if leather seals are used somewhere to hold the grease in.

Red 'n' Tacky is my go-to #2 grease.

John, am sure PGH's grease fine, but we've done well with black molybdenum/graphite grease.

Yup, moly is a bit better in terms of lubricating ability, but considering that grease technology has advanced so much in the past century, I'm sure even the bottom shelf store brand Walmart grease will do you a couple times better than 1920's Packard OEM.

Compare how they advised to change wheel bearing grease every 20k miles or so and nowadays it's like 10x that. Bearing technology has not improved much since then and bearings will break in to achieve a perfect fit anyway. Instead, it's better grease and less foreign contaminants leaking in.

Red n Tacky is very hard to wash off with water so it can be good for poorly sealed applications.

Good points. But since prewar Packards, if decreasing postwar, were about refinement, we like to carry that approach to oils, grease, brake fluid, et al. Either a Chevron or Exxon Mobile tech told us back in 1979-80 that black moly/graph was developed for use in huge trucks in the hellish environment of stone quarries, open pit mines, and was a factor of eight times better than the prevailing orange fiber grease that had been around since at least the '40s.

I believe that if not driving in hard rain, using such modern grease would allow us to disregard the owners' manuals' every 2,000-mile dictum. Tho' there is something satisfying napping under the car with a mini grease gun filled with a CRC Sta-Lube Moly/Graph cartridge, seeing that still virginal former grease start to ooze from the far side of the fitting as the new ointment enters. When you live where the traffic has you under house arrest, you tend to do a lot of superfluous maintenance. 21 zerk fittings on my '47 SC model 2103.

Don't forget to check your steering gear, transmission, overdrive. Nothing but 90 weight GL-1 in all three. NAPA carries it. Support NAPA because they're the only auto parts chain that bothers to help old cars.