Hi Help and advice please.
I have just acquired a DJ 252 which has been stored and the oil was drained from the chassis lubrication system to stop drips to the floor.
I think this may be a good time to remove the auto oil system and replace with grease nipples.
Is this a good idea?
What thread would I need 1/4 UNC ?
How many 21?
Best type straight or angle or some of each ?
As any member done this ?
Thanks look forward to your advice Bryan

The chassis lubrication system is designed to continually maintain an oil supply to the various points as opposed to having static grease as the lubricant.

If your pump isn't working but the metering units and pipework are present, a better solution is to find where the system has a priming nipple, usually close to the pump. Apply a grease gun filled with 140 oil and if applied every 100 miles or so, it will do a better job than an annual greasing.
If the pipes are broken, they can be replaced with semi rigid nylon tubing and this will also replace any broken rubber hoses as well. I think it's 4mm tubing from memory.
The metering valves can be cleaned out in paraffin if they are blocked. Once working, you will be much more inclined to give the whole car a few shots of oil from the convenience of leaning into the bonnet rather than reaching all the inconvenient locations from underneath.

HI THANKS FOR ADVICE.
SYSTEM WAS WORKING BUT LEFT TO RUN OUT OF OIL BECAUSE OF DRIPS ON SHOW ROOM FLOOR.
COULD I REFILL WITH THIN OIL TO GET IT TO FLOW THEN FILL UP WITH 140.
THANKS BRYAN

Personally I have no problem with using a lighter oil in the lubrication system. EP80/90 for example. It may drip a bit more but knowing oil is reaching the places it should reach is what it's about. Properly fed with oil, most of the components fed off the system would have a near indefinite life.

Bryan, I wish.

The self lubricating system is all there on my 15 but a previous owner or garage has decimated it, they chopped off the feed pipes and left them hanging near the shackles and fitted grease nipples.

I have no way of knowing how long ago that was but all bar two of the shackle pin units are worn out.

That could have been because the system was gummed up and the nipples were fitted as a bodge to restore lubrication, but with 12 of them at £35 a throw it is an expensive job to replace them without all the hard work the job entails. When it is done I will sort out the lubrication system, as has been said when the system works the new pins will outlive me.

In your shoes, I would get that lubrication system working it will be a lot cheaper than replacing the pins long term. Syd

Bryan,
If you do decide to convert to grease nipples, and assuming that the Conquest has the same number of lubrication points as the DB18, you will need 17 . Mine came from Namrick and were all 1/8 BSP thread with the following angles.. 7x 45deg, 6 X 90deg, 4 x straight. The caveat here is that the number of angled nipples required will increase if you can't raise the car sufficiently far off the garage floor, and don't have a grease gun will a flexible arm.
If you do convert , will you still use 140 grade oil or switch to grease to avoid the oil drips?
Chris

The auto chassis lubrication on the Conquest range relies upon thermal expansion insofar as there is a small steel "expander-bottle" located near the exhaust which contains two one-way valves - each pointing in the same direction. As the oil in the reservoir heats up, it expands past the outlet valve to lube the chassis points. When the oil cools, it draws in fresh oil through the inlet valve. Thus a small amount of oil is injected into the system every time the engine heats up.

Great in practice - but with one major failing! The discharge of lubricant will take the line of least resistance - so there no gurantee of equality of lubricant distribution - for although there are metering jets at each lube point, but they do tend to be a bit hit-and-miss - the most vunerable points to suffer usually being the top swivel pin trunion bearings. Get the picture?

However, to re-charge the system is simple enough although a special piece of (now unavailable) equipment should be used to pressurise oil from the main reservoir tank.

So proceed (but with extreme caution!) as follows:

Obtain a tyre valve (say) from an inner tube and solder it onto the top pf the reservoir tank cap. By then GENTLY applying pressure from a tyre inflator air line, the oil will be forced past the non-return valves in the expander-bottle and charge the system. Do NOT apply more than about 5psi (aprox 0.3 bar) and only in very small increments at a time - otherwise excess pressure will split open the reservoir tank and make you look like Al Jolson!

Once charged, the system is self-priming.

If you do convert to grease nipples, use a straight non-EP 140 grade oil - remembering that there are bronze bearings in some of the the chassis components - which of course also applies to the oil to use in the auto-lube system anyway.

Or just part-ex the car for a Honda Civic or whatever. .................

Thanks for all that info - I've been debating about what to do with my creaky leaky systems on the Consort.. Looks like a restore/repair of the existing lube pipes and connectors.

many thanks all.
I used a hand pump to add psi to the top of oil tank and removed bottom oil feed on both sides in order.
system now works I think I have oil drips on the floor.
thanks bryan