Ok who knows about grease???

I am still in the process of reduing my hubs/brakes/steering etc. when I opened my hubs they had very recently been "packed" with grease. I need to repack my wheel bearings...... on any grease tub there is a warning to remove all traces of one grease before introducing another type of grease. Hmmmmm, my axel housing contains enough grease to lube a small city, or a large one sparingly. there is no way in heck I can get all traces of grease out in my lifetime.

questions:

is there definative way to determine what type of grease is in there? by color possibly?

am I correct in assuming that grease from the knuckle housing can and will migrate into the wheel bearing pocket through the hub?

should I just burry the jeep in the backyard and take up knitting at this point?

who played lumpy on leave it to beaver?

signed grease impared

 

Gib Twyman.

 

Wrong, next contestant.... close though

 

Frank Bank? :?

BTW I'd just stick the bearings back in once packed. It's unlikely that you'd be using 2 types of grease.

 

correct answer on the Frank Bank, seems he was so well recognised for the part that he was unsuccessful at shaking it when he tried to continue his career.

now for the grease: I went to the local place to get grease and found that there were at least 4 different formulas for bearing grease on one shelf... lithium, moly, etc... I know moly is a bad idea in ball or roller bearings, I am just wondering if there is any way to be sure if the stuff in there contains lithium or some other additive that may interact badly with the new grease. :?

 

Front hubs? I think you're being too precious about this. Clean the bearings with a little solvent (let them dry completly before repacking), wipe out the hub with a shop rag, repack, new seals and you're done. All that excess grease in the hub just sits there, doing nothing. I like the blue waterproof grease for Jeep hubs - used for boat trailer bearings and such. There should be a seal between the hub and the knuckle.

 

being a millwright i am suposed to know this. how ever i am a little rusty :? the biggest problem will be with two incompatible greases you can end up with a substance simmelar to silly-putty i will get the who/what/whys on monday. as to using a water proof grease i would be carefull. those type of greases tend to totaly repell water, which will then end up in one big pudle of water sitting in your hub which will do more damage. a good e.p. ( extreame presure) type greasse and repaks after water crossings and all is good.

 

maybe a little more about the delema here... I need to change hub housings in the course of my swap. I can remove and reuse the old grease but in some circles this is seen as a major FOX PAW. there is really nothing wrong with the grease in there, it is about a cup and a half and it looks unused. the problem is if I follow my years of engineering repair training all of the old grease must go and be refilled with new grease. I can't possibly get all of the grease out of the axel housing so I will wind up with the new grease interfacing with the old grease in the end of the axel housing. what is in there looks like lithium based extreme pressure grease. what I need to know is what grease types are likely to form silly pudy or nuclear waste at the interface with each other... :?

 

Color is a marketing tool used by the grease companies , all that really matters is the specs on that little seal on the back . I like kendall but its ford vs chevy arguement.

 

Randy you are making this way to complicated, like was said before the grease on your front bearings will not migrate to the knuckles, so if you remove the hub on the front and the spindle clean the grease out in a bucket of kerosene, then repack it with some extreme pressure (EP) type grease.

Oh and by the way where did you hear this, I have used valvoline special moly ep grease for 20 years and never had a wheel bearing fail, it is even recommended on the back for wheel bearings mounted with disk brakes due to the temperature rating and the fact that it has such a high melting temp and does not flow out

This is the grease I use.
http://www.valvoline.com/pages/products/product_detail.asp?product=68

 

well if there is anything I am good at it is making things complicated. when I opened the driver's knuckle, there were at least 3 different greases co-existing in there in harmony, so I aint loosin any sleep over it.

as for the molly, I have heard it several times over the years, but the most recent was on a website discussing grease additives and correct applications, the jist of what was being said was that the moly tends to coat metal to prepare for metal to metal contact, in ball and roller bearings this is supposed to eventually act like any other contaminate and ruin the races. Hey I didn't write it. can't find the site right now but if you use altavista and enter bearing grease types, it was one of the first page of sites that came up.

 

Randy if you look at most bearing grease, if there not moly based there moly enhanced even alot of lithium based grease's are moly enhanced and some synthetics are also.
I would just chaulk that article up to an old wives tale or somebody who was spreading crap that they know nothing about. I don't think the grease manufactures would be marketing there products with moly in them if they destroyed what they were suppose to protect.

 

Mike, I agree. as you can probably imagine, my knuckles are now back together with studs, new seals, etc. I am awaiting a set of hub seals to complete a 3 week job that should have taken an afternoon. thanks for the info. :stout:

 

that is also the grease i use. And i have never had a problem

 

I was in the lube business for 20 years. The only grease I'm aware of that is incompatible with other types is aluminum complex. It is made for boat axels because it is highly resistant to water, but it does bad things when mixed with other lithium greases.
By the way if you can find a Kendall distributor Kendall used to have a great book about greases that had a page listing all different types, their strong points and weak points. All grease is for sure not the same.