Hi!
Ok, folks, here's the problem. I recently did some work
on the rear end of the Clankster ( my tr2 ). To wit, I replaced
the axle oil seals. While doing so, I scooped most of the spare grease
out of the hubs.
Now I desire to regrease the hubs. Unlike many rear axles, this
one uses grease on the outer axle bearings ( wheel bearings ), rather
than bathing them in the gear lube.
So I go down to the parts store, and start looking through
the grease selection. There's lots of different greases. And every
single one of them has warnings on the can not to mix greases with
different bases. They recommend that you wash every speck of grease
out of the bearing and then regrease. This is not practical on the
TR, since I would have to use a multi-ton press to get the hubs off,
and even then I would risk bending the flanges. Those tr4 hubs are
stuck on TIGHT. ( it's a TR4 axle: the car's a real abortion,
originality-wise, but it goes like stink, so I don't care. So there.)
So, my fellow SOLs, what kind of grease might have been put into
a TR4 rear axle bearing when it was new? The factory shop manual
is no help: it lists the grease by long-dead brand-specific names.
Something like "Duckhams super-glop 100" doesn't tell me much.
The grease store had the following major types:
bearing grease: "A traditional sodium-based short-fiber grease
for drum-brakes and heavily-loaded industrial
equipment. Do not use with disk brakes.
Hi-temp Disk-brake bearing grease: Lithium-based, with Molybdenum added.
General-Purpose Lithium grease
Heavy-duty bearing grease: As "bearing grease" only based on
"aluminum complex"
I'm told that if you mix the wrong kinds of grease, they will turn into
a watery slime, dooming your bearings to failiure. Which, of course, would
take me back to having to take the hubs off with the multiton press :-(. Does
anybody know precisely which kinds of grease form the watery slime? Is every
grease incompatible with every other grease, or is it just two particular
greases? Aspiring grease monkeys want to know!
- Jerry ( jerry@tr2.com, jkaidor@synoptics.com )
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