[Richard]

Well……rats.

The seal started leaking for the third time during our summer trip. ATF really does make a mess. You know the engineers definition of insanity, doing the same thing over and over but expecting a different outcome.

I had some communication with the engineers at Zero Max, the manufacturer of the OHLA. The version we have is a Newell special. They normally come packed with grease, instead of having an flow through lubrication system. Newell did it in a very clever way by routing the drain hose from the hydraulic motor through the OHLA and then routing the outlet from the OHLA to the hyd reservoir. So, taking the OHLA out the loop will mean the case drain from the hyd motor will now go directly to the hyd reservoir. 

But I am tired of cleaning up that mess in the engine bay, so here is my conversion to grease filled OHLA. I used Mobil 1 SHC grease, that is why it is red in the pics.

The first pic is of the OHLA with the original JIC hydraulic fittings. These are kind of different fittings than I knew about, but I learned they are JIC on one end and ORB on the other. ORB stands for O ring boss. It is supposedly a tighter seal, but only if you can tighten the nut to make the seal between the O ring and the case. Picture two shows the old fitting removed. Those marks on the nut are where someone in the past tried to tighten it with a hammer and a punch. No way a socket or wrench is getting in there because of the right angle.

Anyhoo, I replaced the right angle fittings with a #10 ORB plug. I drilled and tapped a hole in both the plugs and installed zerk fittings prior to installation. I removed the drain plug on the top and replaced with a vent plug. I did spring for new seals although that may have been overkill with the grease.

I will provide an update after next years tour of the country.





Oh yeah, one more thing, if you ever try this. The original plug on the top of the case was 1/4 NPT with an Allen recess. After breaking two Allen wrenches, I knew it wasn’t coming out. So I found a big nut that would just fit over the plug, and plug welded the nut to the plug. No problem removing after that. This is technically known in the south as the mo powah technique.