Wheel bearing grease

father_jack

What grease should I use for wheel cup & cone bearings?

I have lithium based grease, is this suitable?

turkeytickler

yes 8)

father_jack

ok ta. Just thought I'll clean it up, runs a lot smoother, had little flecks of metal in cleaning cloth after I used it to remove the old grease. Took a while to get right amount of tension.

There is a tiny amount of movement, is this ok? If I tighten it a tiny bit more, there is binding. I can't get it to the point of no spindle movement, and no binding.

One of the cups has slight gouge.

imatfaal

[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19664847#p19664847]Father Jack[/url] wrote:

ok ta. Just thought I'll clean it up, runs a lot smoother, had little flecks of metal in cleaning cloth after I used it to remove the old grease. Took a while to get right amount of tension.

There is a tiny amount of movement, is this ok? If I tighten it a tiny bit more, there is binding. I can't get it to the point of no spindle movement, and no binding.

One of the cups has slight gouge.

Cup, cone, and bearings should be shiny and un-marked - the blessed Sheldon would advise that you should always use new ball-bearings and that any mark on the cone should cause you to replace it. But unless the cups are replaceable you would need a new hub so you might as well clean as much as possible and keep it in good nick till you can no longer get it to run easily. If you do have replaceable Cups then replace the whole set and be more prompt for your next maintenance

Remember to install the wheel in the dropout and secure with QR before final testing of ease of turning. The pressure of the QR will compress the axle slightly and you need a tiny bit of slack so that this doesn't overly tighten your cups/bearing/cones. If it is too tight it will not roll easily and will destruct quickly.

Read both Sheldon Brown and Park Tools Maybe buy a copy of Zinn - you can cost yourself a lot in failed parts if you do not set them up as they are intended.

Lithium grease can be quite light and have low viscosity - this is great for racers who want ultimate lack of friction but who regularly strip and maintain bikes; for mere mortals like ourselves who cannot be bothered then a heavier duty bike grease might be of greater durabilty

father_jack

ta but I've worn out rims on wheels without changing grease- and bearings are still fine on those hubs (and generally I just junk the hub at the same time, as a new wheel is about the same price anyway.

That wheel isn't that old. My old wheel with mirage hub was rebuilt, previous rim was convave in shape and hub still runs smooth as silk.

What is a good bearing grease?

The Rookie

Castrol 'red rubber' grease is brilliant, it's waterproof (used for boat trailer wheel bearings), and stays in place and works really well.

Snakebite the 2nd

I've found that it is best to regularly change the grease rather than when it all goes wrong.
This just makes things last longer.
Service intervals depend on the quality of product.
As a rule the front wheels last a lot longer than rear ones, the drive side sealing is never as good.

Change bearings each time, hopefully you won't have to change the cones if done in time.

Adjustment is as described above.

As for grease, well any quality bike grease will be good enough.
If you know your chosen viscosity you can look around for other greases in the motor trade etc.

Big_Paul

I use Keenol marine grease, great stuff although it's not made any more. You can get an equivalent for about a tenner a tub from a yacht chandlers.