Its time to start refurbishing the J&L 58's roller bearing driving boxes. I do not know what oil Porter originally specified for the application, or what is commonly used so I am asking here. Just two Timken tapered roller bearings inside rotating at slow speed.

What grade of oil should I be using? Thanks

Wouldn't Timken be the best source for this information?

85W140 EP is what Timken recommends for oil-lubricated roller bearings.

Thanks! That is good enough for me!

Read a shop specification once that said for a road emergancy, use steam oil in roller bearing boxes. The specifications given for the oil is almost as heavy and thick as steam oil. I drained a box once on a big UP steam locomotive that I swear to this day was steam oil. The rest of the boxes on that locomotive were a heavy gear oil.

Being from both the surface mining industry and agriculture, it's interesting the various oils that a roller bearing or any bearing can run in and survive indefinitely. My own example is a 41 year old farm tractor (190hp). It's trans, diff. and etc. contain lots of roller and ball bearings, all hummin' along just fine in a fluid called THF (Tractor hydraulic fluid). THF is roughly equivalent to 20wt. SAE. If you give a bearing nice clean oil and keep it cool, it's rare to have a failure. It's my experience that 'bearing failures' are mostly from some other cause (if they have lubrication of course). But don't take me wrong here -- 85/140 is a great recommendation.

Hello

When I worked at Nevada Southern Railway (NSRM) in boulder city.

We had a Texaco book from the Later 1940's that showed all the correct oils and there usages on railroad equipment.

I would imagine searched around you would be able to find a copy

Chris

I think the heavier oil would also stay in place better than a light oil. Note how close the max oil level is to the grease grooves which denote the space between the box and the axle. It doesn't take much of a cross elevation for oil to start leaking past the seal and onto the track. This grease seal area was also what was giving me grief when we tried to get the wheels turning, as it had corroded and froze the axles solid to the box.

Being unable to inspect the roller bearings, all I can do is flush the box out good, fill with the correct oil and hope for the best. There are no unusual sounds when I spin the box, so I am assuming that there is not any bearing damage from them sitting in place for oh so many years.

You're not going far or fast - even a marginal bearing will do fine for your purposes.