So, I’m on my back on a creeper looking to replace the pinion seal on my 67 Std A code to rectify 90w slinging onto the underside of the car. I halfway hear my neighbor talking to some guy about golf and other things as I’m trying to focus on the task at hand. I drop down the rear side of the driveshaft and hear:
Him: Hey, I used to have a cousin to your car, a 68 Mustang
Me: That’s pretty cool
Him: Something about marker lights or emblems changing between 67 and 68
Me: Ahh
Him: Have you ever changed the fluid in the rear end?
Me: No, not yet
Him: They put Sperm Oil in. You need to drain it and replace with some good 90 weight
Me: stunned silence
Pleasantries were then exchanged, then he and his wife continued on.
So, how would YOU have responded to such a statement?
I’ve heard that too, and was told it was a myth. Now, I wonder just how a tale like that got started?
On a whale-related side note: I work for a Japanese company. I used to be in the training department where we would teach the customers how to maintain the equipment we sell. One of the significant components in the machine is a very large, bone-white ceramic slab.
During one class the instructor is talking about this large piece of ceramic when he stops midstream and says “I’m not supposed to tell you this, but it’s not really ceramic. We’re a Japanese company, right? Well, it’s actually made out of whale bone.” …and then he immediately resumes his regular training spiel! The students jaws just dropped. When they asked if that was true he just says “no” all dead-pan and goes back into his training routine, leaving them wondering what they should believe.
It was also used in Gear lube. I recently saw a picture of some sludge removed from a 1960 T-Bird 9 inch housing. If I can find again it I’ll edit it to this post. Until then here is some more info on Whale Oil. https://www.lubesngreases.com/magazine/whale-oil-biobased-and-bygone/
Mike and Neal, thanks so much for the links. I thought the guy was totally off his marbles, so I didn’t even attempt to research it at all. Wow, just blows me away that I’d never heard of sperm oil being a big part of lubricants up until the early 70’s (gotta be a joke in there somewhere, but I’m not gonna go there!)
As to Gary’s comment being totally insensitive to species preservation, along with political incorrectness…Damn, I had to laugh out loud at that!
The thing is that you have to start somewhere, in this case whale oil. The newer synthetic oil is better & by a lot. Of course, what do you think it was reverse engineered from? (Even though they’ll never say so)
Ain’t technology grand? (That’s why I’m not really worried about the planet ending in “12 years” ~ or I guess 10 now. In another 5 years someone will have figured out how to pull all the CO2 out of the atmosphere and turn it into Legos. Or Eggos.)
I read somewhere once. That watch makers and repairers back in the day before battery powered watches, would wipe their finger on the outside of their nose Wipe it on the watch part for lubrication.
My Daddy taught me that trick (wiping along the nose) for putting together my two Piece Fishing Rod, greasing up the parts so they would come back apart.
I remember my dad and grandfather showing me the same trick when they took me fishing as a little kid and then passing it on to my kids who thought I was nuts.
I used to hang drywall/sheetrock. If you try to drive a nail into a knot some times it won’t go. We would pull the first nail out. Run a new nail along our scalp a couple times, drive it right in. BOOM! Natural oils work…lol