At 12:30 PM 7/26/04 -0700, Howard Battan wrote:
>.... need to fill the rack with 90w gear oil, per the manual's
>instructions. Since I don't have the proper type of grease gun to both a)
>fit the grease nipples, and b) inject 90w oil into them,
Fron prior correspondence, I will "assume" you are refereing to the MGA
steering rack.
The fittings on the MGA rack are standard "Zerk" grease fittings. You can
grease the input shaft fitting with one or two pumps from a standard grease
gun with every second oil change or so. Using too much grease might cause
it to squeeze out the back past the felt shaft seal. Otherwise a little
excess grease would only go inside to mix with the gear oil, no harm.
The gear oil goes into the main rack via the Zerk fitting on top of the
main rack tube. You can use a standard grease gun if you fill it with gear
lube, just a little messy to fiddle with for a single application.
>.... do I need to spring for the 'pom pom' gun listed in the Moss catalog
>to do the job?
Well it is a nifty tool that is perfect for this job, and it holds just the
right amount of oil for the original fill, and is very easy to use. For
initial assembly and first fill of the rack, you can fill the palm gun
once, pump it all into the rack, and toss the empty gun into a drawer. For
future use, if you only want to add a little oil to the rack, you can put a
couple ounces of oil in the palm gun, pump it into the rack, and toss the
empty gun into a drawer. I wouldn't recommend trying to store the gun with
any oil in it, as it seems to leak a little no matter what the orientation.
If you want to take a grease gun with you on a long road trip, this one
will dispense grease just as well as oil, and makes a smaller bulge in your
traveling tool kit. With a little luck it might actually contain the grease
in storage without dribbling, but I wouldn't count on it, especially if it
gets hot in the sun (or in the boot of your car sitting in the sun).
The plastic aftermarket version of this tool is available from most British
car parts suppliers. The original brass bodied version may show up on eBay
occasionally. I have no personal experience with the original ones. If
someone does have one, I would appreciate a user report.
Barney Gaylord
1958 MGA with an attitude
http://MGAguru.com
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