To grease or not to grease...........

[penfold]

I glad you made that point - I often wondered why roller & ball bearings need lubricating.

It's less about lubrication than cooling and prevention of corrosion, galling and coldwelding.

 

[balmerchris]

who remembers EP 140 used to be green and smell like tom cat pee used in diffs

I got some of it this year for the gearbox on a Howard rotavator. The seals were leaking ep90. Sump was empty in a few hours ep140 lasted most of the day.
That reminds me I must get some new seals.

 

[8ob]

A bit like the landrover axle swivel housings, pump a cartridge of grease in there and top up with EP , you will never see the seal leak again.

Bob

 

[MattF]

If grease dries out it's the wrong kind of grease.

How do you figure that? Unless it's in a completely sealed environment, the base and oil will eventually part company almost entirely, leading to dry grease remnant.

 

[Bill Edwards]

Landrover produced a special swivel grease, I think it was thixotrpic, so it turned to liquid round the cv/uj 's but remained thick around the seals.

Was that the P00 grease?

It's known as 'one shot' in the LR world. There are debates on whether it's up to the job of lubricating everything adequately, so far all I've seen of LR swivels disassembled after prolonged running of the stuff have been fine, it appears to work. The only think I don't really like is that you can't change it easily like gear oil which drains out, but it does appear to manage. I think (but would like to find out for certain) that it's what's known in the agricultural world as 000 semi-fluid grease.


Grease/lubrication is a very complicated subject. And yes, most grease does dry out/separate into oil and soap with warmth. I use a higher melting point grease (K2EP from morris, equal to JCB HP? blue, there are probably other brands too) which does not go hard and is far, far superior - having spent a good amount of time comparing the specs to normal stuff I simply won't use anything else these days, apart from pins and bushes (loaders/excavators etc) which get a pin and bush grease which isn't suitable for bearings. Awful stuff to handle, sticks in there forever...

Over greasing can be a problem, but anybody who feels that no grease on something such as excavator pins needs to be kept away from equipment!

 

[Rig Pig]

Brilube 70 has to be the worst grease in the world, especially on a warm windy day.

 

[pedrobedro]

How do you figure that? Unless it's in a completely sealed environment, the base and oil will eventually part company almost entirely, leading to dry grease remnant.

Not if you put some more in before it happens like you are supposed to That's why there is a service interval.

 

[MattF]

That's not what you said though.

 

[dannyp]

I use 75/90 in my s3 swivels, it stays in until I undo the drain plug to change it...

oil staying in a landrover ........ i'm not saying i don't believe you but i'm very suprised. landrovers we've had in the past allways used to look for its marks when it stoped leaving them was the hint it needed more oil

 

[GW8IZR]

Not one leak or weep from my 90, but it was put together with a degree more care the second time round

 

[The_Yellow_Ardvark]

My Friend (Norbert) Hyundai Terracan has one of these. It leaks oil like he owns a oil well.
The sump rusted out, The rear diff leaks from the seals at the brakes end. Not on to the breaks, but behind the splash shield.
You can see were he drives on a wet day. it is rainbow coloured.