Help with grease: swing arm (&drive shaft)

[blackdogbrian]

Hi Folks,

After reading Mac's encouraging responses regarding the benefits and cruicial piece of the matinence, I'm going to lube the drive shaft/swing arm while I've got the rear tire off.

Which brings about a quick question:

what type of grease do you use for the swing arm, drive shaft and for greasing the wheel/gears when mounting back on the bike?

I picked up some moly grease on the weekend (for the steering ball bearings), will this work - or do I need something diff?

[bobhamlin]

Hi Brian,

That's what I used, so I'm hoping that when Mac gets here, he confirms that it was the right choice.

[recumbentbob]

I used the Honda Moly lube for the drive shaft splines and regular wheel bearing grease for the swing arm & wheel gear.

Warning: Put very little on the wheel gear or it will fly off and end up on your rear wheel.

[MAS Tequila]

Any grease is better than no grease.

I'm sure that there are pros and cons to all the different types of grease out there. I used a moly bearing grease like you have for the neck bearings.

MT

[blackdogbrian]

Thanks for the feedback so far folks.

I'm happy to use the moly greese for it all (since I already have it) but if there is some reason/advantage to use regular grease for the drive shaft or swing arm....

I want to make sure I'm using the right stuff.

[VulcanE]

The grease you have will work just fine. But I use the Honda 60 Moly lube on everything. And like Bob said, just use a very thin coat on the wheel gear, and final drive gear, or you'll be cleaning your wheel after you ride it, a few times.

[ringadingh]

You can't go wrong with the moly grease, its a lot better than what the factory installs.

[macmac]

Molly, I use CJ Joint grease, because that's what I have. This is used best on things that get hot when dry. Like cv joints, and ALL Splines counting the rear compound wheel.

It is fine to do the swing arm with this too, but I prefer a stiffer Marine Grade Chassi grease.

The stiffer grease works in the needle bearing cages ok, and you want the tube stuffed, the spaces coated on all surfaces, and that long bolt coated too.

With that much grease in there sticking to all the metal you might never have any rusty spaces, long bolt threads and that like.

Chassi grease is a bit cheaper than molly, and you can get a stiffer molly if you want.

Either grease will work on the 1600's top rear shock bearings. I freaked out when I saw these were bearing mounted shocks.

A little rubber lube for brake rubbers wouldn't hurt on the lower shock mounts. Girling makes that.

What makes molly grease different than any other is it contains microscopic ball bearings. These fill voids in what appears to the human eye to be a fine high polished bearing surface.

The hardest part of greasing things is getting them clean. There is no point greasing stuff when it is covered in flith.

[bobhamlin]

I KNEW we'd get the low-down when Mac got online!

Originally Posted by macmac

There is no point greasing stuff when it is covered in flith.

btw, Mac, is that similar to the "drit" we have in the Mid-Atlantic area?

[cajun2wheels]

All moly grease is not created equal.I think Honda is about 60% moly and I have seen some at the auto parts stores that contained only 10%.I went to the local Honda shop and ask for the Honda moly and they didn't know what I was talking about.I ask them what they used on the splines and they said"plain old grease".My bike will never see the inside of their service dept.I found it on Ebay for about $9.00.

[macmac]

Bob, my spelink may be off just a tad, but then I didn't have to buy 3 Nomads to just get one pikshaw. Yeah in the miss lantic you git drits... Way down south they got grits.. Up heya' on the nawth country we call grits sand.

Besides, do you recall missing letters on my last key board??? Well Do YA?

Thisin' heya one has these missing now, nmoipuae, and it double spaces hitting the space bar once.


Now if you ask me we only need 2 vowels and the rest is a waste anway. Most of my missin' letters are dammned vowels, and then them m n'm's, which is chocolates, and everybody knows M n' M's chcolates has no bee's wax being anywhere near a keyboard.

I don't care what anyone says M n' M's melt and make a big sticky mess!

So thar, that's fixed. Is there anything else I may assist you in today Bob?

Next week I am tryun'out fer a new Govt Job, so I can come to help.

[macmac]

Originally Posted by cajun2wheels

All moly grease is not created equal.I think Honda is about 60% moly and I have seen some at the auto parts stores that contained only 10%.I went to the local Honda shop and ask for the Honda moly and they didn't know what I was talking about.I ask them what they used on the splines and they said"plain old grease".My bike will never see the inside of their service dept.I found it on Ebay for about $9.00.

CV joint greases, by VW, Audi, Saab, Volvo, M Benze, and BMW are top notch stuff, as well as Honda. More or less any decent foreign auto parts store will have thse in packets with an off set tooth paste like cap, so if you don't use it all at one setting, you can stash it for some other day.

I don't work on Subaru, but I expect they do as well as Toyota. I don't specify what brand I just say CV Joint grease.

[Geaux360]

I have a 2007 Nomad with 10,700 miles on it. I went to Honda today to buy M-60. M60 has been discontinued. Now they only sell M-77; so M60 has been replaced with M77. I hear that M77 is mostly used for brake jobs. It’s almost 77% moly and it’s a paste. Do you guys think M-77 will be okay to lube the drive shaft, splines, and universal joint?