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Wed Apr 23, 2014 9:36 am

The other day me and my grandpa were talking about steering boxes and how somethings use oil and some use grease. He told me that way back in the day, guys would fill their transmissions with regular gear oil and saw dust to make everything feel smooth and quiet.

I know that this is a terrible idea, but I'm curious as to if are there any applications where it would be a benefit?

Wed Apr 23, 2014 9:45 am

supposedly it was a was a way to quiet a noisy transmission, in order to get it off the lot.

Wed Apr 23, 2014 9:46 am

jcmyers wrote: supposedly it was a was a way to quiet a noisy transmission, in order to get it off the lot.

Ditto.....

Dale

Wed Apr 23, 2014 9:51 am

It's a trick used car salesmen use to mask bad bearings.

Its quickly stops making the noise but you already left the lot.

Wed Apr 23, 2014 10:35 am

lustig69 wrote:

I know that this is a terrible idea, but I'm curious as to if are there any applications where it would be a benefit?

only beneficial if you want to ruins someones engine/transmission

Wed Apr 23, 2014 10:44 am

My father told me the same stories from the 1930's, thee was a term for it but I can't remember it. In the 1950's with early auto transmission's with slipping clutches they would stuff bananas in there. It would get you to the dealer for a trade in. :D

Wed Apr 23, 2014 12:33 pm

sawdust keeps the wineing down....till the wife go's for a ride :shock: and when the saw dust isant enough use some snake oil...ever seen a squeeky snake??it must work wonders.
as for the banana's in auto trans I dont think it would do much at all.but some carb clearner will in most cases soften upo the piston&accumulator seals so they work...for a while,it also removes the varnish from the valve body where it may have some stuck valves.run it for an hour or so& service the trans.Ive seen it work& the trans still working just fine for years. ford was bad about varnishing ,they must of used the worst lowest grade trans fluid's.service them& they go A long time. both ford&mopar had very good automatics....untill the overdrives started coming into play. gm always had shit for automatic trans and kept the automatic tras shops going strong.the fluid was the only real problem ford had. bananas in the tail pipe for axle rose foley in la or for lunch.not for trans.

Wed Apr 23, 2014 2:25 pm

I actually tried this in two of my own cars. It works very well. It doesn't affect bearing noise at all (myth). It works great with worn synchronizers - for years.
I tried this on my Opel Kadett 1200 with great results, and on my SAAB 900 Turbo with no result. The SAAB had bad bearings which were not affected at all. I continued using the same mix in both cars for several years without issues. Then again, the bearing issue didn't seem to get worse either. Maybe the sawdust is similar to Red Line Heavy shockproof gear oil?

Wed Apr 23, 2014 2:51 pm

I also heard this for packing noisy rear ends on American cars to quiet them up for sale. I can't see any REAL benefit.

Wed Apr 23, 2014 2:53 pm

The real benefit is that it works. Which is more than can be said for a fair bit of actual go-fast goods.

Wed Apr 23, 2014 2:56 pm

Few shared Boolean's success. The sawdust essentially turns the oil into grease, so most customers ended up having to replace a gearbox or engine when this trick was pulled on them.

Wed Apr 23, 2014 3:04 pm

The 'real' benefit was to fool anyone you were aiming to sell a car to - or trade-in at a car lot. There was almost zero benefit to do that and keep the car.

I've never done it but I know a few guys who have. A long time buddy of mine sold used cars for years. He used to get all sorts of cars with crap in the rear end or manual trans.

Never heard of putting sawdust in an engine - just manual trans and rear gears to quiet them down. Gear oil in an engine would quiet a knocking rod long enough to sucker some poor dolt.

How about oatmeal in the radiator? I can vouch for that trick - it works good. I bought a 49 Ford 1/2 ton truck cheap because the radiator leaked badly. I stuck half a cup of uncooked oatmeal in it. I drained the system and put in antifreeze coolant - it lasted for years that way. I traded the truck to my younger brother who drove it for several years without problem - he traded/sold it to our older brother who also had no problems with the cooling system. Tough old truck - flathead 6 with a 3 on the floor. It got 19-20mpg regularly.

Wed Apr 23, 2014 3:40 pm

My grandfather swore by "egg-keep" to seal blown head gaskets and radiators. the same stuff they used to used to seal the pores in eggs to make them "keep" longer.

the procedure was as follows
drain and flush engine and radiator
mix up the egg keep
pour it in the radiator
fill the rest with water
run the car for a half hour (if the sucker doesn't overheat, bigger problems if it did)
turn it off, drain the system again, fill it with water and whammo... that will get you by a couple months until you can afford to do the head gaskets.

My Grandfathers shop was Cleve's automotive in Palmdale, CA. he did this for a gentleman in the early 60's who was driving a Buick 88 from Los Angeles to Texas. the guy got to Texas and phoned him to say thank you. a few months later he got a check in the mail for the repair. My grandfather had done this as a "help someone if you can" thing. He was a very kind and helpful person . loved helping folks, and I miss him greatly.

Wed Apr 23, 2014 3:47 pm

Yes, I've used nutmeg in the radiator in an emergency and it works - 1 oz nutmeg. But I've also had the sawdust trick pulled on me as well shortly after the gearbox was replaced the oil was changed and the faults that had been hidden "reappeared." I think they pulled every trick in the book on me with my first car, then had hired thugs beat me up to top it off! So, when I got my first VW "beater" I was in love.

Wed Apr 23, 2014 6:07 pm

I know guys who have packed rear ends with ground beef to make it quiet and sell the crappy car ... rip off !!

Wed Apr 23, 2014 7:34 pm

Back in the old days horse poop was routinely used to "fix" radiator leaks.

Wed Apr 23, 2014 7:59 pm

That's horseshit! :D

Actually, there is a grub that eats spinifex and craps out the resin, which can be collected, melted and used to patch all sorts of things in the desert here. In fact, it's about the best repair you can make to plastic radiator tanks.

Wed Apr 23, 2014 9:44 pm

Ive used peper&an egg in my brothers tyodie a few hundrad miles from home going the other way.it made it back& a new raidaitor was on the way.yes it works,but that also depends on the leek

Wed Apr 23, 2014 10:20 pm

raul arrese wrote: I know guys who have packed rear ends with ground beef to make it quiet and sell the crappy car ... rip off !! That wouldn't be so cheap these days! :shock:

Wed Apr 23, 2014 10:39 pm

Heard a product like "water glass" would fix a rad??