Knuckle Pudding

While I was at Napa yesterday talking to the counter guy he told me that when he replaced the bearings in his 4WD truck he would always pack them in grease, and then when he put the locking hub back on he'd leave the bolt @ 12:00 and 3:00 out.

Then he'd put 90 gear oil into the hub through the 12:00 hole until it ran out of the 3:00 hole...meaning it was 1/2 full.

He said this would make the grease kinda like pudding and would extend the time between bearing packing.

Is this the same as Knuckle Pudding that y'all have been talking about?

 

If ignorance is curable (and I think it used to be), I need some medicine. Does knuckle puddin' really do any better than straight 140 wt? Since my '61 5 only has 86k on him, I don't know from a long mileage standpoint, obviously. I've heard for 25 or 30 years that this half and half mix of grease and lube was superior. So, what's superior about it? Do you really get any longer life out out of the knuckle - or the top kingpin bearing?? Could be a moot point for me, you suppose? At this rate I might not ever wear anything out!! He's never been more than 150 miles from home anyway. But, I am curious....

 

I opened one of my knuckles last weekend, it had been filled with straight grease. there was no leakage, but the surface of the bushing that the axel stub rides in appeared to be dry. I believe that some oil content to the grease is a better idea. $.02

 

You know the owners manual calls for universal joint grease in the knuckles not oil, which I would bet is the same sulphur based grease/oil that is used in Saginaw manual steering boxes, the stuff that goes in manual saginaw boxes looks just like knuckle pudding , 1/2 grease 1/2 oil. I always used 90wt as it was the thickest I could find but that stuff would go thru the frontend in a month or so even with new seals, I would think that 140 would go thru also, just not as fast, I would if I was going to reuse my dana 27 use knuckle pudding in place of straight oil.

 

Well...wouldn't this idea do the same thing...? Give you knuckle pudding easily?

Course I have skipped the write ups on knuckle pudding so I'm not even real sure what it takes to create it.

Guess I'll go to the tech section and see for myself.

 

It sounds like this is intended to provide a thick layer of grease around the housing to prevent leakage while providing an oil/grease slury in the center to sling lube the components. not a bad plan from the sound of it.
Kinda like a twinkie with a blender in the middle

 

I use knuckle pudding the way the factory service manual calls out. It is a mixture of three parts.

1 part clean knuckles

1 part good seals

1 part 140 weight oil filled almost, but not all the way to the filler hole.

That said, I always pack some grease in the bearings just because I don't want to put a dry bearing in place.

 

oil is easier to clean up than grease. also by the time the grease heats up enough to lub, damage has been done to the bearing. prefer to add oil as needed.

 

Knuckle puddin' sounds like it has such efficient lubricating abilities maybe I should try it in my transmission, transfer case and differentials? Principal should be the same.
No leaky-leaks, superior lubrication, brew up some sludge, let it ooze in, cap it up, drive and forget about it.

 

Tonight has been slow at work s o I thought about this topic a little, I'm not saying I'm right, just kicking around some thoughts, let me throw a wrench into the mess here about oil being a better lube than knuckle pudding or grease, how many of you guys drive your vehicle around on the road with the front wheels engaged and the transfer case disengaged, cause unless you do, the upper bearings in the frontend never see lube from oil unless the u-joints inside are spinning at a decent speed, that was the whole point behind knuckle pudding to start with (its sticky and stays there), and if oil is that much better of a lube why were the king pins in the later model open frontends greased, along with every wheel bearing on the frontend of all jeeps and cars, now inner axle bearings are different as they are not tapered bearings but caged ball bearings and those were put in there because they do spin and lubricate better in oil than grease, virtually all tapered, roller, or needle bearings run in grease not oil, and the king pin bearings are tapered rollers not ball type.
Transmissions are the only common needle bearing that runs in oil that I know of?

And the copy of the FSM that I have on CD says nothing about using 140wt oil in the knuckles, it specifically says to use universal joint grease, (what ever that is).

Just something to think about, oh and by the way, I have never put knuckle pudding in my frontend, I just bought the 90 wt by the gallon jug.

 

I just realized that the knuckle pudding everyone's talked about is for the "Knuckle" not the wheel bearings. The idea I was talking about was for the wheel bearings. Unless I'm mistaken they were originally just packed with grease. That's probably what I'll go back with.

 

I'm looking at page 8 of the Jeep service manual SM-1046, figure B-1 Lubrication Chart

Item 4
lubricant -- GL-3
grade SAE 140 for both summer and winter.