Technical GM Posi Additive shelf life?

I'd use it, of course I've got bottles of oil sitting on the walls of my shop that still have paper labels that are unreadable because they are that old and faded.

I need oil for the old lawn mower I just pop a lid open, pour a little out to see if it's engine oil, power steering fluid or atf. If it's engine oil it goes in because I figure if I bought it surely I bought some good stuff back then !

.

 

I've got two containers. One small plastic bottle like above, I've also got a quart paper/metal container of the posi additive.

Interesting thing...MANY years back, I had an all stainless steel .44 Magnum handgun (Auto Mag.).
The design sorta sucked, but the biggest problem was that the bolt would score, or try to gall itself to the part of the frame that it was housed in.
I tried MANY lubricants with little to no success. Then one day, while looking for my next lube, I saw the bottle of GM posi lube sitting on the shelf. What the hell, I thought.

While it didn't get rid of all of the scoring and marks left on the bolt (after a light Scotch Brite polishing after every outing), it was, by far the best that I'd used so far. After more searching, I found nothing better to keep the galling from the bolt and frame interface.
The gun's gone, but the two containers of the GM posi lube are still on the shelf !

Mike

 

Yes, it's still available from G.M.

 

I also have a couple cans of gear oil, probably older than the additive?

 

Good thought, but MD is an abbreviation for the state of Maryland and the string of number's after it are the postal Zip Code for the town.

 

Part of me says, if it doesn't say "use by...." on the can, I'd use it, while my other part says " what's the additive cost Vs rebuilding the rear end".

 

Where's your sense of adventure Tag?

 

The additive is to help the clutches slip smoothly when cornering to reduce chattering. Add it in and if/when the clutches start to chatter on turns, change it out. Chattering is going to wear the fiber clutches first, so unless you let it go for a long time it is pretty much a no damage to hard parts deal

 

My nature is being cheap, but over my lifetime I've found being cheap sometimes cost a small fortune

 

You know those containers are old, it's all in English.

 

Jim ,it's kind of ironic that you would be asking that question. You'd be the first person I would
ask....

 

Probably as good or better than what's available now.

 

yeah, I really just wanted to show off a neat find...

 

Ha, went through this yesterday. Leaving the vintage bottle on the shelf.

 

It's still available for those who need it.

 

Running a Locker, I don't have a lot of use for the additive myself...although there is a posi in the Dana 60 in my old truck. Which probably hasn't had the oil changed in it for 20 years or so. Hmmmm....

 

We quit carrying the OE GM stuff years ago and have used aftermarket product without fail. With Spicer and Ford posi units we do use the Spicer additive.

 

Wait what? We’ve been talking Blue Cheese and know you throw Italian into the mix!?

 

Jim
I would try giving it a good shaking. Like you do with old paint.

Seems like the posi additive had some grit in it, albeit microscopic, something for the clutches to bite on. what you may be seeing is the additives clumping. If you give it s serious shaking the floaties may go away. Think Type F automatic transmission fluid here.

OK that is the best non-answer I can think of. Perhaps food for thought instead of answer.

 

Wow… it was like old home week seeing that bottle of Positraction oil. I can smell it from across the country past the computer live show and it is still being capped up…HA!

Hello,

As much as I learned from an early teenage year, I came to understand the reason for it and saw the instant result of such a weekly job. It was something that was taught to me from my brother after he bought his new 1958 Chevy (black 348/280 hp motor) Impala sedan. He was tired of having a cool lowered rake sedan that took his friends everywhere. He wanted fast and right now...

His 51 Oldsmobile sedan was a fun car, looked cool, but, lacked the power to be the top dog when it came time to have a little action on the Cherry Avenue Drags location or even in the parking lot gab sessions about cars. So, with his new purchase sitting in the garage, all nice and shiny black, he was getting his ideas of drag racing in place with what he needed to be fast and a trophy winner at our local Lion’s Dragstrip.

The stock car classes were full of his friends’ hot rod cars/sedans. It seemed like the rest of So Cal also had the same idea. There were elimination runs that were crowded and sometimes to speed things up, they ran four cars across. It was as if the whole public street moved as fast together to beat the green light intersection races. But it was for a quarter mile with four cars across.

Jnaki

The one advantage he saw immediately was that the top racers had the same motor and power. But, the Positraction unit that came with the order form was ok for the most part. But the winners were now using a 4:56 gear ratio Positraction unit, instead of the stock from the dealer, 4:11 unit. So, he had saved enough money to buy a complete 4:56 Positraction unit for his Impala.

He did the first several changes on a Thursday night for the Friday night local cruising scene and the all day Saturday Lion’s Dragstrip races.

He taught how to go through the weekly changes from 4:11 to 4:56 in our backyard. I was happy he chose me to do it. Then for the next year or so, I was under the car doing the steps to get one unit out and put in the new 4:56 gears. Then on Sunday night, the reverse installation for the daily drives to school and work for him. The weekly change over made the street driving a little less hectic and smoother.

For the first several times, I got the smelly oil on my hands and could not get it off, unless I wanted to smell like gasoline. But, for the rest of the times, I was careful not to spill the oil or get it on my hands. No one wore gloves for any hot rod work back then. The oil was definitely smelly and whale oil smells similar to the little bottle sold at the dealers. We used the small bottles, but we saved as much oil as possible in the removal process and then had to add some to top it off prior to daily running or for competition.

The oil was usable over and over, but had to be topped off with new oil if I let it drop and drip out. so we had several bottles in our traveling toolbox, just in case. It is memorable due to the strong smell that stays on you, your clothes or towels for what seemed like forever. Sometimes, the guys in the high school auto shop knew when I did the exchange as the odor just would not come off of my hands.

The old oil can be used but for the old units only. Somewhere down the line GM changed over to a different kind of oil and they do not mix. YRMV

 

I wouldn’t even shake it up. Pour it in and drive. Let the ring gear shake it up. Otherwise may as well mix the gear oil with it before putting in the rear.

 

Always save your receipt so you can take it back to the store.

I don't know anything about sperm whale juice in your rear end but I was a lithographer as far back as the mid-60s and I don't believe that the "dot matrix" factor will help date the printing. The courser rows of dots per inch would probably be "letterpress" and the finer rows per inch probably "offset printing"....... but the kicker is these overlapped for over a century and both are still in use to some degree.
That's all I got.

 

Thanks, I was referring to the shipping label on the box....not the litho.

 

Well...... This is just one of them things that makes me say. "Never mind".

 

#00992694 up here in the great white.

 

I would see if heating it and stirring it makes it "unseperate". Is that a word?

 

Emulsify.

 

70’s tax incentive for farmers to grow Jojoba for it’s oil as a replacement for whale oil with Huell Howser on right now.

 

Years ago I had to pull the rear cover off an old late 60s rear end. After I pulled the cover I discovered there were clutches in the rear. My suspicion was that cover on the late 60s rear had never been pulled off before. Everything still looked good, and it probably had the GM Posi additive in it. I didn't have any old stuff on the shelf, but if I did, I would have shook the bottle good and put it in there.

I might have different thoughts using the old additive on modern vehicles, but this old stuff was designed to be used with the old lubes and additives.

 

Hmm, Jojoba oil attacks plastic. Is this what the separation chunky’s are???