• Hi Guest!
    If you appreciate British Car Forum and our 25 years of supporting British car enthusiasts with technical and anicdotal information, collected from our thousands of great members, please support us with a low-cost subscription. You can become a supporting member for less than the dues of most car clubs.
    There are some perks with a member upgrade!
    **Upgrade Now**
    (PS: Subscribers don't see this gawd-aweful banner
Tips
Tips

Grease fitting ??

Share this page

T

Tinster

Guest
Guest
Offline
I am still struggling with this bloody front wheel
bearings project. I am almost ready to hammer in the
bearings and re-bolt everything back together.

I hate working in filth. I cut myself from sharp things
lurking under filth and crud. So I clean up my work area.

This morning after I cleaned up some of the mess behind
the wheel bearings, I uncovered a grease fitting and a
small brass pot of some sort.

I have a grease gun. Does this fitting get wheel bearing
grease or regular grease. Does the brass pot hold extra
grease?Should I put grease in the fitting?

I could not remove that hanging arm that connects to a
broken rubber component of the steering system. I would
prefer not to saw if off. I banged it pretty good with a
hammer and it did not budge.

So what do I do now?

thanks,

dale

nipple.jpg
 
That brass pot is your trunnion. A very critical part of your front suspension. Don't try to cut it out, we could be reading your obit tomorrow.
Put a couple pumps of grease in it and worry about the rubber seal when you rebuild the front end.
I scanned too quickly. Saw brass pot and cutting. Scared me.
 
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:] I could not remove that hanging arm that connects to a broken rubber component of the steering system. I would
prefer not to saw if off. I banged it pretty good with a
hammer and it did not budge.[/QUOTE]

That hanging arm is connected to your steering tie rod. It is removed with a tool you can buy in a good mechanics tool shop. Some people use a hammer and "pitch fork", but I'd recommend the tool. I've posted the picture before, but I'll try again. It's the tool on the right; the one on the left is for the upper ball joint.

925IMG_0751-med.JPG


Good luck. Hopefully my post worked.
 
Thanks Kentville-

I'll go check out Western Auto and see if they
have the tool. Much appreciated.

d
 
dale you need to have the boys with the other 6's over for lunch and some cerbesas. It's time for a little lesson.Did you red the Bentley manual as you take apart the bearings?
 
Mr. Bentley is sitting right center edge of the photo,
open to the page on front wheel hubs.

fineMess.jpg
 
I am sure Mr. Bentley mentioned the trunnion in his book and how to take off the tie rod. Some times you have to look ahead to see how the book ends.
 
If Western Auto doesn't have the tool, try a store that caters to the VW crowd. Or of course, there is always mail order :
https://www.thetoolwarehouse.net/shop/TA-61900.html

BTW, I'm not trying to reopen the lubrication wars, but Triumph said to use gear oil in the TR6 trunnions, not grease. I'm not sure how much difference it makes, the earlier trunnions used grease and it seems to work fine there; but Triumph/Leyland must have had a reason to switch.

IMO servicing it regularly is more important than whether you use grease or oil.

Lots of solutions have been proposed to putting oil through that zerk. I found a grease gun at Mercury Marine, designed to take grease in "toothpaste tubes"; and the same store had gear oil in a matching tube. Seems to work OK at the bench, but I sold the only car I had that needed the trunnions oiled before I got to try it in action.
https://www.vtr.org/maintain/trunnion-oil.shtml
 
I am sure someone else will sound in soon, but at I do believe that Triumph recommends GEAR OIL for those "brass pots" which do have a name: "trunnions" The idea behind oil is that it lets the small bits of metal which wear move away from the active area and sink down to the bottom.
Basically the trunnion is a big nut and the vertical link is screwed into it.
Now when you do the front end, which it sort of looks like you might have decided to do now, you will take that bit off and there are a couple of nylon inserts which get replaced. If you are lucky, the trunnion itself is not worn so it can be reused.

If you are not rebuilding it now, I would take out the grease fitting, and spray a bunch of carb cleaner in to dissolve all the old grease and then fill it with gear oil. I found that a big syringe works quite well for this task.
 
"Bloody 'ell" Yisrael!!!

I could remove and replace four entire trailing arms
in less time than this wheel bearings project for one
single wheel.

Who was the wise guy convinced me this was an "easy"
project might take me a few hours-both sides?. I'll
be into day four tomorrow.

"Trunion"? Sound like a Star Trek critter to me.
Never knew a car had one.

d /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/frown.gif /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/crazyeyes.gif /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/mad.gif
 
The lower part of the vertical link has acme threads that turn in the trunnion. As the vertical link rotates, it moves up and down ever so slightly. This causes it to act like a pump. When it goes up, the oil is drawn down over the threads. Conversely, when it is screwed in, it displaces the oil up around the threads. The constant movement of the oil insures the two parts are continually lubricated.

But grease seems to work just as well, at least for as long as most of use have left to live or keep the cars.
 
Dale, the other side will go faster.
 
Tinster said:
"Bloody 'ell" Yisrael!!!
Who was the wise guy convinced me this was an "easy"
project might take me a few hours-both sides?. I'll
be into day four tomorrow.
d /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/frown.gif /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/crazyeyes.gif /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/mad.gif
Click to expand...

dale we said to repack the bearings would only take a couple of hours. We forgot this is "Dale" time and when you do things there are "all kinds of" side trips involved. The front end is going great just "get er done"
 
Tinster said:
Who was the wise guy convinced me this was an "easy" project might take me a few hours-both sides?. I'll be into day four tomorrow.
Click to expand...
Careful there, Dale ... you're showing strong symptoms of the classic 'Shipwrights disease' ! That's where you take off one part, then look at the part underneath it and think "might as well fix/clean/paint that while I'm here", then you take off another part and ...

Next thing you know, the body is off the frame and the engine is in a dozen different boxes.

I know someone that just started to replace the carpets; 20 years ago ! He found a spot of rust and ...
 
Randall, It is not nice to talk about people behind your back. My 10 year odyssey started because of a broken hood release cable.
 
Randall-

Someone told me things had to be "clean room" spotless
in order to install the new wheel bearings.

I just followed the crud and removed it and cleaned a bit.
Well, maybe a FEW additional parts had to be removed to
get at the crud? They required cleaning as well. Besides,
as long as I was in there anyway.............

DPO Pedro was/is a pig. I'm not. Amos will be well groomed.

So like.....this part was really, really cruddy. Not now.

tap2.jpg
 
Looking really nice Dale. What do your suspension bushings look like? Can you tell? It would be a good time to change them if needed while you have gone this far.
 
Tinster said:
Randall-

Someone told me things had to be "clean room" spotless
in order to install the new wheel bearings.
Click to expand...
Wasn't me ! All I said was to wash your hands before packing the new bearings /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/smile.gif

Seriously, it's your car, it should please you. I respect that.

All I'm saying is that your choices play a part in how long the job takes ... normally, waiting for paint to dry is NOT included.
 
your problem Dale,we all have an off season to do all this (winter). It,s like that movie where everyone watches his every move and he doesn't know he's on TV.
You take the discussion well
 
Tinster, the wheel bearings are usually easy. What is hanging you up? Maybe we'll have ideas.
 
Back
Top