Morris Minor Owners Club

Hi, it looks to me like the steering rack lubrication nipple has previously been treated to grease rather than oil. There is the same red gunge around the nipple as round the other nipples on the car. What should I do? Just start lubricating with oil or do I need to clean out the grease somehow?

Just bang in some EP90 oil.

Don't use a big hammer though!

There is the same red gunge around the nipple as round the other nipples on the car.

red gunge?? Do you think thgey had some red grease (I've never seen any), or was it maybe a protective coat to stop the nipples corroding (servicing places tend to use red, blue or grean coatings so you can see that they did 'something')

And remember to empty the remaining oil from the grease gun afterwards because it always leaks out otherwise.

Hopefully nobody's used Castrol red rubber grease. At least the bellows should move freely!

Don't overfill it - or you will just burst the bellows. It doesn't need much.

10 pumps on the handle only from memory....

My grease gun didn't get on with having oil in it, and I'm not too keen on the idea, plus the nipple on the rack seemed to be a bit blocked.

So I unbolted the nipple and gave the hole in the rack 10-15 squirts from an oil can filled with EP90, screw the nipple back on and jobs a goodun!

Hello Ray,

just as an aside, the place I work (a wood particle board manufacturing factory) has both red and blue grease used for special applications, both in high temperature situations.

Alec

both red and blue grease used for special applications,

sounds like fun stuff
We occasionally see white grease used for assembly of brake fluid seals (where mineral based grease would wreck the whole system).
Most of the specialist stuff isn't available to the general public, which avoids a lot of confusion but is annoying if you need some. I've seen green grease on other applications, but again it was specialist stuff.

chickenjohn wrote:I unbolted the nipple and gave the hole in the rack 10-15 squirts from an oil can filled with EP90, screw the nipple back on and jobs a goodun!

That sounds like a REALLY good idea! Much simpler and easier than emptying the grease gun and filling it with EP90 and mucking about.

Thanks for the tip! I think I'll do that next time!

That sounds like a REALLY good idea!

Agree with you Cam, why are the simpler ideas often overlooked.

Well, in John's case it was necessity being the mother of invention as the nipple was blocked and the grease gun filled with EP did not really work. But I guess that we just don't consider different ways of looking at problems if the 'normal' solutions work OK.

Well I've found that the nipple isn't 'square' to the access hole, which stops the gun fitting properly so I usually give the floor 10 squirts of ep 90! Removing the nipple sounds good to me.

so I usually give the floor 10 squirts of ep 90!

Ray, I think its red/pink coliured grease. All the nipples have it around the outside, and when I put grease into the front legs it forces some red stuff out further down.