Mud for differential gear oil

A number of years ago my dad bought an old car in Kenya with the intention of fixing it up and using it. When he got as far as checking the rear differential he found the previous owner had been using a fine clay for lubrication as a cheaper alternative to gear oil. Apparently there was no serious damage from his unorthodox choice...

An Introduction to Practical Technology

Welcome - the idea behind this site is to encourage the sharing of simple, practical solutions to problems using resources readily available.

I grew up in the sparsely populated reaches of northern Kenya where the nearest hardware store or mechanic's shop might be more than a day's hard driving away over some of the roughest roads in the world. If something needed to be fixed right away, we looked at what we had on hand, did some thinking and got to work.

It's surprising how much you can accomplish with how little when you have no choice. Please share your stories, ideas, suggestions...