I had the same symptoms in my '84 back in 1999. I also packed it with wheel bearing grease (red). The WB grease is still there and my steering is fine. I too, read the Bentley warning (after), and wondered, but so far so good. Mike Houlton, Maine '84 GL 7 pass manual steering '85 GL Westy power steering
jbclem1 wrote: > My 1983 Westphalia steering became stiff yesterday with some real sticky sections. Today, to > isolate the problem, I unhooked the tie rods. Since the problem was coming from the steering rack, > I pushed a bunch of grease into the steering rack tube on the rack shaft side. After working the > steering back and forth for a while it seems to have freed it up, at least temporarily. I drive > through a creek everyday so it makes sense that the mechanism has acquired some rust or some dirt. > > But then I looked in the Bentley manual and spotted this: "Caution. Only use special steering gear > grease part # AOF 063 000 04 to lubricate steering gear" I used regular wheel bearing grease and > I'm wondering what it would be incompatible with...the rubber boot, seals? Would CV grease (moly) > be a better choice. What I want to do is pack some grease in the rubber boot so that it will work > itself into the unit over time, hopefully extending it's life. I could also wire brush the rack > slots but they didn't look too bad, just had a red-orange coloring. > > Any ideas about this? > > John > |
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