Postby Hasbeen » 10 Jul 2008 02:54
When I was a young bloke, in the 1950s, living in the Oz bush, in
the quiet of the night, you could often tell there was a car comming
by the howling. No, it wasn't their tyres, or our dogs, or even the
cat, it was the cars diff. You would hear that motoring sound, long
before there was any hint of engine noise.
Fortunately, for you young blokes, it's a sound long gone from
motoring, due to closer tolerances in diff construction today.
However it was still with us loud & clear into the late 60s.
In Oz, our trusty used car dealers had discovered that you could
stop the howling, at least for a few hundred miles, by stuffing half
a dozen banana skins in the diff. You needed a strong stomach to be
a mechanic back then, doing oil changes, because the smell of EP90
oil, & old mashed banana skins has to be experienced to be believed.
About 1963, enter STP in Oz, & all that was gone. The dealers
discovered that STP added to the diff not only did a better job of
qiueting the diff, it even reduced their leaks, made them last
longer.
After doing the 1964 Bathurst 500 in a car using SAE10 oil, with
15% STP, I was impressed. After finding it made the Big end bearings
in my Triumph TR3A engined Morgan +4 last 5 times as long, when
racing it, I was more impressed. After running it in the Hewland
transaxle, in my Brabham F2 open wheeler, & finding it eliminated
the "scalding" type wear on the crown wheel teeth, I was even more
impressed.
I have not run an engine with out 10% STP since.
I have not run a diff without 15% STP since.
I tried it in a Moss XK120 Jag gear box once. It eliminated the
sincros, which depend on friction to work, completely. Not good.
I don't run it in gearboxes.<s></s>
If you are still with me after all this, unless you have a limited
slip diff, stick 15% STP in your diff with that oil, & your diff, &
your bank a/c will thank you.
Hasbeen
