Hello All – I’m seeing that I’m supposed to lube the driveshaft of my '120 with 140 wt lubricant. As this is done through grease nipples and 140 wt is a liquid, how is that done? I’m not aware of 140 wt being sold in cartridges to fit a grease gun. What am I missing here? Also, are there access issues for doing this? I see that the forward end is sort of above the chassis cross member and obscured by the handbrake cross shaft, spring and hardware. Being enshrouded by the tunnel seems to be an issue too. Thanks.
The Tecalemit Plastigun is sometimes called an oil gun. I believe they expected you to empty it of grease and fill it with oil to do this job, or have two.
Later 120s have an access panel cut into the gearbox tunnel on the right side so you can get to the forward u-joint.
If you’ve got modern U joints, use modern grease. They’re designed for it. No U joint manufacturer is expecting a repair shop to use thick oil.
If you’ve still got 60 year old u-joints I’d still use grease because the seals are probably hard as a rock and 140 won’t stay in place for long.
Just my .02.
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Thanks Rob. I’ll make that modification to the tunnel on my late '50 car and clean out the small grease gun for the oil.
Mitchell, this is a new driveshaft but thanks for the advice.
It would be interesting to discuss the development of lubricants in the u-joint. I believe they all came from Hardy-Spicer, from whom the lubricant recommendations must have been derived.
In the 1938 Instruction Book it says the u-joints are greased and no further attention is required.
The u-joints on my '38 SS have no grease fittings at all.
But they were apparently added on the Mark IV. Here is the relevant paragraph in the '46-48 Manual.
The Mark V specification is similar to XK120.
The factory Manual for my '74 XJ12 does not say anything about lubricating the 3 drive shaft u-joints, and no grease fittings are shown in the parts catalogue. However, the rear axle half shaft u-joints have grease fittings, and grease of various brands for them is in the Recommended Lubricants chart.
I wonder what the thinking was at Hardy-Spicer, and why it would change?
I’ve never restored a car quite as old as an XK - the oldest car I’ve worked on is from 1964, but there have been many of them. They’ve all been British (apart from one Mustang), and every single one has required Castrol LM or similar grease in the Hardy Spicer needle bearing cups. I can’t imagine a heavy oil staying in there for very long.
I understand how oil would be flung off in short order as opposed to grease, but if this is what the manual calls for, then I’ll stick with oiling it. As a side note, and though I don’t have the book handy at present, isn’t the brake pedal supposed to be oiled rather than greased as well? I know it has needle roller bearings too.