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Grease Selection

Nige

Senior Member
Joined
Jun 22, 2011
Messages
28,973
Location
G..G..G..Granville.........!! Fetch your cloth.
It is a common question for someone to ask what the correct grease is for a particular application.
Of course there's no such thing as "one size fits all" when it comes to grease.
Hands up, how many people can say that they can look at a manufacturer's data sheet and compare one product to another on the basis of the specification as it's writ on the paper..?

Here's a crib sheet "seven tests for selecting the right grease" that tries to take a lot of the mystery out of the process.
 

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bigrich954rr

Well-Known Member
Joined
Dec 10, 2014
Messages
211
Location
oregon
This keeping fresh cheap grease In the joints or parts versus using the best grease and only greasing every once in a while the cheap grease parts last way longer.

With that being said I still believe in using a good grease and greasing often the more worn the part is the shorter my greasing Intervals becomes because there’s a bigger chance of dirt getting in and the grease being pushed out
 

BeaudesertSand

Active Member
Joined
Aug 29, 2007
Messages
26
Location
Australia
Occupation
Plant Operator
I bought a Milwaukee 18 volt cordless grease gun in 2014. My brother remarked that ALL grease guns are cordless...

However it's just been one of the greatest things I've ever bought. My old plant had 100 or so grease points all up, life was just so much easier once I got that thing and also, started a campaign to make the plant 99% greaseable while it was running.

We went from replacing a tail drum bearing somewhere every 2 weeks to not changing one for several months.

Where I work now only has grease guns and cartridges no bulk grease ( suits me, it's always such a mess and the drum is ALWAYS!!! empty when i get to it.

I grease ALL the points on my loader every day. Well Except Saturday if I work it as the machine barely runs 3 hours.

One squeak does damage. Last place I worked at I said to the sales loader guy on the 2 way: Brett can you hear that pin??

Yeah it's okay... No it isn't!!!

I said a humpback whale is going to swim up the creek and want to have relations with that loader it's squeaking so loud.

Oh and after 6 years and countless boxes of grease through my gun it's still in perfect condition. I look after it and never let it out of my sight if it's not in my van...
 

92U 3406

Senior Member
Joined
Jan 3, 2017
Messages
3,098
Location
Western Canuckistan
Occupation
Wrench Bender
My dad was always on the ball with greasing. His truck got greased every weekend regardless if he worked it 3 days or 5 days. Of course it got hit top to bottom with the hot water pressure washer Friday night regardless. Definitely needed greasing after that!

Funny thing was, he never had any premature failures, breakdowns etc. When you're under the truck, greasing and thoroughly inspecting stuff every weekend you tend to catch issues long before they become problems.
 

dixon700

Well-Known Member
Joined
May 11, 2014
Messages
210
Location
pa
Occupation
heavy truck mechanic
I use mobile delvac extreme grease in about everything. o_O now I did just buy JD corn head grease a #0 grease for the track system on my newly acquired JD 450 dozer.
 

Randy88

Senior Member
Joined
Feb 2, 2009
Messages
2,149
Location
iowa
Ok, here goes, been reading about everything written on grease, why? because it seems someone greased one of my trenchers with apparently the wrong grease and now I'm replacing about 5k in bearings, not to mention labor. The kicker is, nobody seems to know what they used that "wasn't" compatible with what we normally use for grease is about the jest of it. I've learned a lot in the past week, but since nobody knows for sure what was used, everything is pure speculation as to why the major bearings failed with plenty of grease still in them.

From what anyone can recall, they might have used some John Deere grease, polyurea grease some customer had on hand when they ran out of what was on the service truck, so instead of not greasing it while working over a weekend and unable to get what we normally use, they borrowed some tubes from a customer. Which led down the path of, how old was the customers grease, turns out deere made a sheer stable grease that was compatible and also an older version that wasn't compatible with lithium grease we normally use. So just going by what we pieced together, it must have been an older version that wasn't compatible, which was never caught or even thought about and now we are trying to figure out what grease to use, so this won't happen again...........hopefully.

Now the table Nige put up is nice, seen if a few times before in my search, but there are far more grease types and additives not mentioned anywhere on the chart or most charts so to speak, which brought about what the bearing manufacturers recommended, which is two or three different types of grease on the same machine, so a call to some bearing companies to get info on what is acceptable or not, which is a complete joke at best, turns out a lot of different greases can be used in the same bearing, its more to do with what brand of grease you want to use, but don't cross contaminate the same bearing with greases that are not compatible is the jest of the whole deal.

Anyone what to shed light on what happens when you cross greases that don't mix so to speak, besides they react in a different way and its not good for bearings, like get thick or thin or don't allow rollers or balls to roll but rather skid instead, or turn solid and don't lube at all, or allow water to mix in the bearing and cause rust and a whole host of issues it seems I was never aware of until all the bearings failed at about the same time, which is very unusual even for me.

What we've been using is pretty simple, moly if it slides, glides or is a bushing of any sort, lithium grease for bearings, now most of my stuff is older, so I don't have a huge amount of specific grease like is what is required on a lot of newer equipment and according to the bearing suppliers, who's bearings I'm replacing with, I can use about anything in them as long as the grease is compatible, meaning all the bearings will get the same grease this go around, which brings up the debate of, who's grease and what kind?

Now I'm not sure but been reading and there are moly greases that can be used in bearings and don't cause issues, from what I can understand its got to do with the aluminum content of those greases and other moly's that should not be put in bearings don't have aluminum but rather other additives?

Anyone care to explain what polurea grease is, and what sheer stable means?? Can't really get anyone to pin it down in any language a human can comprehend is about the jest of it?

There are a lot of greases that fall under the category of Lithium NLGI 2 with a huge amount of different additives, many that you shouldn't mix, anyone want to narrow that down a bit, basically I've gotten lost when comparing labels and the compatibility charts then onto the specs comparisons between the greases themselves, then to locally available to buy and a steady supply on hand kind of thing, then toss in trying to make things as idiot proof as possible for everyone working for me or around here.

I used to agree with John in saying as long as someone actually greases it I'll never complain to now, we might have to revise that statement slightly.
 

Tones

Senior Member
Joined
Mar 15, 2009
Messages
3,059
Location
Ubique
Occupation
Ex land clearing contractor, part-time retired
Years ago I was told in no uncertain terms, never mix oil brands even it they have the same specifications because of the additives that manufacturers put in them. It's far better to run an engine low until it can be topped with the correct stuff. It could be very much the same for grease with so many different varieties now on the market.
 

gwhammy

Senior Member
Joined
Nov 20, 2013
Messages
602
Location
missouri
Lots of cheap grease, sometimes twice a day on bucket pins on skid steer. I've tried lots of different kinds and come to this conclusion.
 

Coaldust

Senior Member
Joined
May 9, 2011
Messages
3,286
Location
North of the 60
Occupation
Cargo Tanks, ULSD, RUG, Methanol, LPG
polyurea Base grease can make weird things happen to the existing lithium base grease when you mix them together, such as the lubricant separating from the base and flowing away from the bearings. Or, the mix can cause the lithium complex grease base to harden up. Now, the liquid lube component in the grease doesn’t touch the bearings.
 

Shimmy1

Senior Member
Joined
Aug 14, 2014
Messages
4,257
Location
North Dakota
I get made fun of by the guys I run with, but at the end of the day, I believe what grease you use in what joint DOES make a difference. As far as bearings go, I don't care if you run lithium, aluminum, calcium, or polyurea, just don't mix them. Same goes for pins/bushings, except make sure it has moly. The heavier the load, the more moly. I won't use polyurea or aluminum complex because they seem to not play nice with anything but themselves. Lithium and calcium work fine together, the calcium sulphonate 5% moly grease I use doesn't pump worth a dam when it gets cold, so I switch to a lithium complex 3% moly that has a synthetic base oil that pumps great down to about 0°. They work fine together.
 
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