Grease in the Steering Box.

L.Fure

Well-known Member
The 300 I'm working on steers a lot harder than I think it should. I was thinking that the steering gear box was dry, so I removed the plug to check if it had any oil in it. What I found was a dab of gun grease on the end of the plug. Someone must have pumped the steering gear box full of grease. I wonder where they put the grease zerk?
 
I use a mixture of synthetic grease and gear oil to make a slurry, lubes well and stays put. Grease is
not the answer, nor straight gear oil. The old steering box lube was around a 600w which is a little
nasty to find now days.
 
(quoted from post at 14:20:16 10/10/17) I use a mixture of synthetic grease and gear oil to make a slurry, lubes well and stays put. Grease is
not the answer, nor straight gear oil. The old steering box lube was around a 600w which is a little
nasty to find now days.

I was thinking about pouring some diesel fuel in it to loosen up the grease, but I like your idea better.
 
I ordered these pipe plug grease fittings from ebay and put it in on my steering cover. I have used corn head grease and regular grease on mine. If the seals are shot in your front end then you will probably
want to use regular grease as it oozes less. I believe the plugs came in a 6 or 8 pack and I have used some of the others on other gearboxes. Very handy and keeps things cleaner.
a174581.jpg

a174587.jpg
 
Is your new 311 wide or narrow front end?

I prefer to renew leaking seals and use the factory fill SAE 140 gear oil. Wide front vertical shaft seal is easily replaced, I haven't done a NFE, suspect it would be more difficult maybe not worth the effort. 300 steering lever and stubs are a poor design and really loaded, especially if it has Char-Lynn type PS, w/o adding the resistance of high viscosity grease. If your tractor is early 1956 it may still have the original factory 2 stud lever.

If you really want or need to use grease/mixture I would put the zerk on the drain plug and fill from the bottom up with the top plug out for a vent. The top plug has a vent hole but I would leave some space for thermal expansion. Drill and tap drain pipe plug 1/8" npt for a zerk. While you are at it check/set the cam/stud backlash.

Joe
 
A friend and I both used gun grease in worm gear boxes in rototillers. We both wore the bronze gear teeth off. Grease is displaced by the gears and does not flow back where it can lubricate. I never took a corn head drive apart but I assume that is the same type gear drive and I heard corn head grease flows slowly to lube.
I assume grease in hand drill reduction boxes is similar
Maybe a little thicker.
 
(quoted from post at 05:47:23 10/11/17) A friend and I both used gun grease in worm gear boxes in rototillers. We both wore the bronze gear teeth off. Grease is displaced by the gears and does not flow back where it can lubricate. I never took a corn head drive apart but I assume that is the same type gear drive and I heard corn head grease flows slowly to lube.
I assume grease in hand drill reduction boxes is similar
Maybe a little thicker.

The steering on this 300 feels like there is no lubrication around the worm gear. I'm going to try putting some 80W90 gear lube in the box and see if that lubes the worm gear. I may take it apart next spring if this doesn't help. I purchased this tractor to run my bush hog type mower to keep some weedy patches under control. With winter weather just around the corner I may have to park the 300 in the barn and finish the to do list on this tractor in the spring.
 
You might try some corn head grease as mentioned below. My Oliver calls for that in the steering box. It's a little lower viscosity than regular tube grease but thicker than 140W gear lube. Your John Deere dealer should have it.
 

I got about a pint of 75W80 in the steering gear this morning. It did seem to make steering a little easier.

One other thing I needed to correct was the way the front wheels were aimed. In the process of trying to move the tie-rods I noticed that the left steering arm was loose. After I tightened that down the steering became harder. After some head scratching, and looking things over a bit, I found that someone put a thick washer under the steering arm. After that was removed the steering was easier, and the toe-out of the front wheels was gone.
 
(quoted from post at 23:37:46 10/10/17) Is your new 311 wide or narrow front end?

I prefer to renew leaking seals and use the factory fill SAE 140 gear oil. Wide front vertical shaft seal is easily replaced, I haven't done a NFE, suspect it would be more difficult maybe not worth the effort. 300 steering lever and stubs are a poor design and really loaded, especially if it has Char-Lynn type PS, w/o adding the resistance of high viscosity grease. If your tractor is early 1956 it may still have the original factory 2 stud lever.

If you really want or need to use grease/mixture I would put the zerk on the drain plug and fill from the bottom up with the top plug out for a vent. The top plug has a vent hole but I would leave some space for thermal expansion. Drill and tap drain pipe plug 1/8" npt for a zerk. While you are at it check/set the cam/stud backlash. Conner , you hit the nail on the head. Perfect way to deal with a bad seal that needs to be replaced,but not motivated enough to repair it.!CM

Joe
 
(quoted from post at 18:28:34 10/10/17) I ordered these pipe plug grease fittings from ebay and put it in on my steering cover. I have used corn head grease and regular grease on mine. If the seals are shot in your front end then you will probably
want to use regular grease as it oozes less. I believe the plugs came in a 6 or 8 pack and I have used some of the others on other gearboxes. Very handy and keeps things cleaner.
a174581.jpg

a174587.jpg

What kind of air filter do you have on the 300 pictured in your posting? It couldn't be an oil bath filter laying horizontally like it is.
 

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