Lower Upright Modifications

I have two zerks in the bottom of each upright.

Different vendors sell various kits to ensure that lower shaft stays lubricated.

Seems like a good idea, and now would be the time…

I purchased the kit from Hall. You drill 2 holes in the upright itself. That gets grease to the bushings but not the threaded shaft that goes through the upright. I ended up drilling holes in the long steel bushing. Three at each end equally spaced. That in theory will hopefully get grease to that center shaft.

Ken

Spacer lower support shaft #19 is the one I drilled.

FWIW, I installed the Pantera East greaseable lower shaft kit WAY back in 2003-2004. I liked the fact that the grease is applied through the shaft, through the spacer and directly onto the bushing. Never paid attention whether any other vendor sold a similar kit.

I reduced the diameter of the central part of the axle very slightly and installed a grease nipple on the hub carrier.

When I inject grease under pressure, it comes out on each side and I am thus certain that everything is greased.

There are a number of mods (actually, a complete redesign of the upright) for external greasing of that area. The factory method was to completely disassemble each lower assembly and periodically HAND-GREASE the parts. No one does this because its sloppy and very labor-intensive. Some low mileage Panteras were apparently last greased at the factory!

The difficulty with external greasing lies in greasing BOTH inside and outside of the hollow spacer that runs in the lower rear bushings and actually supports the weight of that corner of the car. The long stud just holds the assembly together. Not greasing the bushings allows them to wer egg-shaped and causes odd(?) handling.  The o-rings and plated thrust washers on each end of the a-arms seal off the upper and lower tube surfaces from each other.

The stock pivot spacer is hardened steel and is unfortunately prone to severe rust from condensation on its inside surface to the mild steel retaining stud. This eventually seizes the whole rear suspension assembly and the fix requires hacksaw-ing the o-ring covers and stud ends off. This was once so common that Hall used to sell a whole kit to repair what the hacksaw/Sawzall destroyed.

Hall's neat drilled retaining stud allows greasing the inside of the hollow tube and maybe the thrust washers, and a zerk in the side of the lower upright allows greasing the outer tube surfaces including the bushing areas. So one really needs both methods, on both ends of each stud to eliminate all rust and also lube the bushings. That means 3 zerks per corner. Finally, pumping high-pressure grease into the area to force it past the o-rings can/has ruptured the o-ring(s), opening a path inside for road slop, and you'll never notice unless you disassemble an upright for any reason.

I re-engineered Hall's drilled stud some decades ago, and finally added a hardened stainless steel  hollow tube in each upright to eliminate the last traces of condensation corrosion. There's a whole series of illustrated articles in the POCA News archives on the subject, by several authors. Note this was also a problem on the Maserati Bora, certain Lotuses and other mid-engined cars of the '70s-'80s that used this type of upright. Not sure how they handle the situation today. Good luck.

Thanks everyone for your input. I appreciate it very much!