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Re: Steering Rack Lubrication

To: "Dan Eiland" <deiland1@elp.rr.com>
Subject: Re: Steering Rack Lubrication
From: Tom Hall <modtiger@comcast.net>
Date: Thu, 07 Apr 2005 01:06:43 -0700
At 10:13 PM 4/6/2005, you wrote:
>Can someone explain why we use grease on wheel bearings and on steering
>column bearings, while using gear oil to lubricate the bearings in the rack
>and pinion and the differential? It would seem to me that the rack and
>pinion bearing and the steering column bearing would share more load and
>force characteristics as would the wheel bearings and the differential
>bearings. I'm confused as to how the engineers chose lubricants for the
>different bearings.

You might consider the contact surfaces and observe that the bearings 
generally have rolling contact whereas the gears have sliding contact.  I'd 
also consider the viscosity, film strength, heat transfer capability and 
additive requirements.  Oil may work as well in rolling contact such as the 
differential carrier bearings but grease must not have adequate physical 
properties when it comes to sliding contact applications.  It's designed to 
stay essentially in one place.      Tom





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