dana 27 knuckle lube???

[buzzinhalfdoz]

in the process of rebuilding the dana front axel in my 1970 CJ5.
had to replace the knuckle bearings and hub bearings, got assembly complete yesterday. during assembly i packed all bearings with wheel brg grease( that is what was in their when i tore down). when finished i saw the plug on the knuckle and got to thinking what was it for? do these knuckles run liquid 80-90 or something inside?
thanks

 

[TroyaCantrell]

Yes they need lube, but the liquid (80-90) is too thin. I did some research recently when I rebuilt mine and ended up mixing my own. What I found while looking was that the liquid was too thin and wheel bearing is too stiff. I mixed wheel bearing with enough 90wt so that it flowed but was still thick enough that it would not seep past the felt seal.

I filled the knuckle with it using a putty knife. You can also fill your grease gun with it and fill through that plug you saw.

Did you do king pin bearings while you were in there?


Troy Cantrell
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Build thread - '66 CJ 6:
http://www.jeep-cj.com/forums/showthread.php?t=15075

 

[harleydragon]

I use just general purpose grease in mine and pump it full

 

[Sasquach]

I have been digging thru old threads with no luck looking for a recommendation member Price? gave me on using CV lube that comes in a squezable tube.
Have not tried it yet but seems like the perfect solution.

 

[mstar]

john deere makes a special lube that is used on corn harvesters.it is called
"cornhead grease" and comes in a cartridge.do a search on the net to find out what the special propertys of this lube is.i used it on my dana 27 last time that i serviced it and found that it is perfect for that application.basicaly it partly
solidifies when idle than gets more liquid when axle is rotating.for you thrifty
guys just keep on mixing your own. mike

 

[harleydragon]

this subject coming up was interesting to me so I did some research..basically,everyone was right from what I read..the john deere grease mentioned above has a 00 classification and is considered perfect.this same lube is used by snapper and others.From what I read it is basically gear oil mixed with grease 50/50 so if you want to mix your own then that is just as good.It was also mentioned that just filling the knuckle with grease was cool because it was going to get gear oil from the differential into that area anyway,giving the same results..

 

[mstar]

Harley, just a note on the structure of a dana27.There are inner seals in the axle tubes near the differential that seal the tube and axle area from the spindle.In other words the differential lube will not reach the spindle unless the seal is faulty.Considering the accessibility of those seals unless the unit was rebuilt they probably are faulty.The OP is correct in packing the front wheel bearings with grease.The debate over lubricating the kingpin bearings(I call them trunion bearings) is long.The best thing you can do is reach down and engage 4 wheel drive or engage free wheeling hubs and let those axles spin a short time to mix up that lube and prevent moisture from forming at the top of the knuckle and rusting the upper bearing. Thanks for checking on the "cornhead grease" .For me it is just a convenient way to fill those knuckles. Mike

 

[harleydragon]

Harley, just a note on the structure of a dana27.There are inner seals in the axle tubes near the differential that seal the tube and axle area from the spindle.In other words the differential lube will not reach the spindle unless the seal is faulty.Considering the accessibility of those seals unless the unit was rebuilt they probably are faulty.The OP is correct in packing the front wheel bearings with grease.The debate over lubricating the kingpin bearings(I call them trunion bearings) is long.The best thing you can do is reach down and engage 4 wheel drive or engage free wheeling hubs and let those axles spin a short time to mix up that lube and prevent moisture from forming at the top of the knuckle and rusting the upper bearing. Thanks for checking on the "cornhead grease" .For me it is just a convenient way to fill those knuckles. Mike

yeah..I think that cotton picker spindle grease is probably about the same thing as the cornhead grease

 

[buzzinhalfdoz]

yes i did king pin bearings too. guess i will add the grease later, might just fill it up with my grease gun...
thanks

 

[Posi]

I use grease with 10% STP. I found this to be a good mix and have used it for several years.

 

[buzzinhalfdoz]

i forgot about how thick stp was, guess i might give the grease and stp mix a try...

 

[NorthwestCJer]

It was called "knuckle butter" and there is a lot of info on a few other forums that deal with the earlier CJ's

 

[buzzinhalfdoz]

i priced the cv lube at local parts store, it was 1.99 a pouch.
wonder how many pouches to buy?
auybody on here used cv lube for the knuckle???

 

[CRETE4U]

I'll use STP & grease next time.