Greetings from Lakewood, Washington. I am new to the DB Forum, and also new to owning a antique DB car. During the past several decades I have been a hobbyist at old car restoration and have completed a number of 1950’s and 60’s vintage cars. For the past year I have restored a 1927 Willys to be a go anywhere car, and I recently bought a 1923 DB Roadster and am doing a off frame restoration of it now. On Lubricants for our old cars.....semi-liquid steam oil is no longer commercially available, to my knowledge. But it is still the recommended gear lube for steering gear boxes. I have found that the product sold as CV Joint lubricant is pretty well suited in viscosity and compatibility for this use. I have found no DIRECT replacement for what DB calls cup grease (in the 50’s we called it “hard” grease) but Auto Zone sells some general purpose grease, which is non-acidic, which seems to serve the purpose for wheels and fittings. The 600W and 1500W oil sold at various places, is recommended in transmissions and differentials for two reasons. The first being its ability to cling, and in the gear boxes containing only about 4 ounces of lube, this is extremely important to keeping the gears in the upper housing lubricated. The 2nd is the fact that most of these cars use felt seals, rather than rubber, and depend on wicking to saturate and seal the joint. I have been told that using conventionally available gear oil (90/145 for example) speeds deterioration of brass parts and should be shunned for this reason alone. But the best reason I can think of to use the higher viscosity 600W or 1500W is that the lighter weight gear oil, designed for use with rubber seals, will leak right past felt seals and ruin things, like brake linings. I already belong to too many old car fan clubs and, after I decide which one to drop, will most probably become a full member of the DB Club.
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