Classic/Antique Car Repair: 1934 CHEVROLET MASTER SEDAN, chassis lube, steering boxes

Question
QUESTION: I have lubricated the steering box by filling up the resevoir at the steering box and now the lubricant is leaking out but I cannot detect where from. I have since read the service manual and it talks about lubrication every 1 000 miles. How much lubrication should I put into the steering box. Have I overfilled it or could you suggest where it could be leaking from.

ANSWER: The recommended lube is plain old gear oil 90 weight. However in the day when these cars got some mileage on them we used to pump chassis lube into them. The correct fill is to fill to the plug. I would suggest washing down the underside of the gear box and then watching over a period of time for the source of the leak.


---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: I want to confirm. Is it correct to put gear oil and chassis lube into the STEERING BOX.

Answer
Gear oil is what was recommended when the car was new, but as you know there were no new cars built during the second world war. When I began working on cars in the family garage in the late 1940's we were routinely putting chassis lube in these steering boxes as the boxes were so worn that the gear oil would run right out.