How to maintain wheel bearings?
Clifford W.
correct? Is there another way to get these guys rolling again? Any
suggestions / experiences welcome.
--
Clifford W
4atntr...@NOSPAM.sneakemail.com
Motorblade
>correct? Is there another way to get these guys rolling again? Any
>suggestions / experiences welcome.
>
Wd40 can be used to clean bearings but sewing machine oil or citrus based
bearing oil or lithium grease are the most commonly used lubricants. There are
definetly variations on this theme.
"fritz"
<A
HREF="http://www.austinchronicle.com/issues/dispatch/2001-05-11/xtra_featu
re4.html">The Austin Chronicle Features: A Life on Wheels</A>
www.motorblade.com
Birdy(Parker), Brazil(Gilliam),and Brewster McCloud(Altman)
B Fuhrmann
> I was told to never, NEVER use WD-40 to lubricate wheel bearings. Is this
> correct? Is there another way to get these guys rolling again? Any
> suggestions / experiences welcome.
WD40 isn't intended as a lubricant for bearing loads.
What do you mean "get these guys rolling again"?
Are they jammed so that they don't roll? If so, you need to clean them
first. WD-40 is a good solvent for cleaning bearings. It is also good for
soaking bearings that have been in water to prevent them from rusting. I
have personal experience with that last one from last weekend.
My preference is to clean them with a solvent first to remove old oil or
grease, follow it with dish soap and water to remove the solvent with a
spinning rinse under fast running water to flush out dirt and crud, then a
rinse with denatured alcohol to dry out the water.
What you lube them with after that depends on what properties you want.
People swear by all sorts of things, some even by WD-40.
Most things sold as lubricants will work acceptably.
Greases and gells last longer, oils require more maintenance but spin a
little easier. If you think that you will be in wet areas, you need to
think about materials with rust inhibitors.
Bob Cardone
lubricant, dirt, sand, , the bearings are ready for the big bearing
junk pile in the sky. Buy new ones. You can screw around and try to
salvage them, but once you have pits in the race or balls, they will
always have some built in "drag", regardless of the amount and type of
lube, and never roll properly.
Bob
Clifford W.
they don't spin like a slot machine anymore. They used to spin so fast with
a hit from my hand they would make that whizzing sound. Now they sound
'mushy'. From what I've read the important thing is to keep them clean, and
use WD40, sewing machine oil, or lithium based oil.
Again, thanks!
--
Clifford W.
vdyuuo...@sneakemail.com
"Clifford W." <ex9kl9trnl8j0n001@NOSPAM@sneakemail.com> wrote in message
news:1BtR8.60602$ia2.5...@news3.calgary.shaw.ca...
Bob Cardone
>Thanks to all who replied. What I meant by 'get these guys rolling again' is
>they don't spin like a slot machine anymore. They used to spin so fast with
>a hit from my hand they would make that whizzing sound. Now they sound
>'mushy'. From what I've read the important thing is to keep them clean, and
>use WD40, sewing machine oil, or lithium based oil.
>
>Again, thanks!
WD 40 is OK for cleaning,, but Mineral Spirits is better. WD 40 is not
a lubricant. What's important is that the wheels "whiz" when you are
skating on them.
Bob
Clifford W.
should I go to sporting goods store?
--
Clifford W.
vdyuuo...@sneakemail.com
"Bob Cardone" <cardone1!@!mindspring.com> wrote in message
news:71hghuo8e4glmeor7...@4ax.com...
Bob Cardone
>Mineral spirits....this is generic mineral spirits from a hardware store, or
>should I go to sporting goods store?
Hardware store
Bob
Mike van Erp
> WD 40 is OK for cleaning,, but Mineral Spirits is better. WD 40 is not
> a lubricant. What's important is that the wheels "whiz" when you are
> skating on them.
>
> Bob
On the contrary, WD40 is a lubricant:
http://www.wd40.com/
Whether it's a suitable lubricant is another question. Given that the
loads skaters put on bearings are minimal, it's probably more than
adequate. It's so thin it probably won't be very long lasting,
though.
For me personally, I wouldn't use either oil or WD40. I prefer grease
because that requires much less maintenance and lasts far longer, and
I'm quite happy to give up a small amount of rolling resistance.
Cheers,
Mike.
Bob Cardone
the worst thing that you can lube bearings with. I have a great deal
of experience in this from one of my other hobbies, Radio Controlled
helicopters. The maintenance of bearings in these aircraft is critical
and WD-40 is just about the worst thing you can use if you want the
bearings to lats more than a few hours.
Bob
Bob Cardone
Some stuff on WD 40 on it's lubricant qualities
Index Home About
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Newsgroups: sci.chem
From: B.Ham...@irl.cri.nz (Bruce Hamilton)
Subject: Re: WD 40 Ingredients
Date: Thu, 12 Jun 1997 15:41:41 +12
In article <5n9c5h$5...@freenet-news.carleton.ca>
ca...@FreeNet.Carleton.CA (Everett J. Harriman) writes:
...
>Does anyone know the composition of the product, "WD 40"? I'm
>especially interested in identifying the ingredient used to give
>the penetrating property to WD 40.
The WD stands for Water Displacing. I haven't analysed it,
( not commonly sold here ) but somebody ( Professor Toraki? )
squirted some down a GC/MS and confirmed the solvent was
boiling around 150-200C and only contained a minor % of
aromatics, which means it is either a narrow boiling range
kerosine fraction, or a special narrow boiling range solvent
like low aromatics white spirits.
I've analysed a similar product, and it was around 80%
kerosine, 10% acidless tallow oil, and 10% lubricating
oil light base gade - with some additional antioxidants
added to improve durability. When the composition of
WD-40 last came up in sci.chem, I wasn't sure if it was a
water displacing solvent only, but subsequently there
has been a long discussion about the film left behind in
some rec.* groups - which is why it should not be used as
a lubricant, the film is only a temporary corrosion protective
layer.
That would make WD-40 like the formulation above.
The kerosine is the solvent, the tallow oil and lubricating
base grade provide the means for the fluid to displace
water from surfaces and, when the kerosine has evaporated,
leave a thin, protective film on the surface that provides
temporary corrision protection. It is possible that it may
have some solid lubricant in it ( PTFE,Graphite,MoS2 ),
but I suspect there would not be enough to provide any
useful lubrication - and thus should not be used to wash
"proper lubricants" off bearing surfaces, chains etc..
Note that the light lubricant base grade is just the vacuum
distilled, high boiling, hydrocarbon fraction used in light
lubricants, but has minimal lubrication properties ( until all
the Extreme Pressure and other compounds are added ) other
than those conferred by the viscosity. It is not a "lubricant",
just a base grade.
So, in summary, it is a water-displacing formulation which
deposits a film that provides temporary corrosion protection
( temporary usually means days to months, depending on the
environment). The 40 is supposed to mean that it was the
40th formulation evaluated - not certain if true or not.
Bruce Hamilton
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Newsgroups: sci.chem
Subject: Re: WD 40 Ingredients
From: rto...@pop.uky.edu (Professor Robert Toreki)
Date: 10 Jun 1997 12:50:44 GMT
I answered this a while back...Here it is again, courtesy of Deja
News:
>Subject: GC-MS analysis of WD-40 (was Re: WD-40: what's in it?)
>From: rto...@pop.uky.edu (Rob Toreki)
>Date: 1995/07/03
>Message-Id: <3t9hed$9...@service1.uky.edu>
>Newsgroups: sci.chem,sci.materials,sci.engr
>
>As I don't recall seeing a decent answer yet in this thread, I shot
>some WD-40 into a vial of ether and then shot the sample into my GC-MS.
> This minimal analysis will have missed any nonvolatile species
>(inorganics, polymers) as well as any components (propellants etc.)
>with approximately the same volatility of ether (the detector is shut
>off during passage of the solvent front). I then matched some of the
>major peaks against our computer's 138,000 compound database.
>
>The GC-MS shows about 45 different components in the C9-C11 range.
>Decane and undecane are the two largest peaks in the spectrum. Most of
>the C9-C11 appear to be straight or minimally branched hydrocarbons,
>although one peak had a pretty good match for decahydronaphthalene.
>C9-C11 make up approximately 99% of the detected signal, but I also
>picked up a small amount of higher alkanes such as hexdecane and
>eicosane (C16-C20 range). Overall, it doesn't quite match Merck's
>desription of kerosene, but the idea is more or less the same.
The kerosene reference was in response to another reader's suggestion.
Bruce Hamilton also pointed out that if there were any non-volatiles
you could easily test for it by evaporating the solvent.
Enjoy.
Rob
-----------------------
Professor Robert Toreki, Dept. of Chemistry, University of Kentucky.
Inorganic, Organometallic and Materials Chemistry while you wait.
rto...@pop.uky.edu Way cool web server: http://www.chem.uky.edu/
Major research funding cheerfully accepted; inquire within.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Newsgroups: sci.chem
Subject: Re: WD 40 Ingredients
From: B.Ham...@irl.cri.nz (Bruce Hamilton)
Date: Fri, 13 Jun 1997 10:18:38 +12
Well, I'll be a little crass and add to my post.
In article <...> B.Ham...@irl.cri.nz (Bruce Hamilton) writes:
>The WD stands for Water Displacing. I haven't analysed it,
>( not commonly sold here ) but somebody ( Professor Toraki? )
>squirted some down a GC/MS and confirmed the solvent was
>boiling around 150-200C and only contained a minor % of
>aromatics, which means it is either a narrow boiling range
>kerosine fraction, or a special narrow boiling range solvent
>like low aromatics white spirits.
It is listed as Stoddard Solvent - which is actually a low aromatics
White Spirit. It would have a boiling range between 150C - 200C
and an aromatics content below 20%. According to various
sources, the typical liquid product contains:-
70% low aromatic white spirits ( stoddard solvent )
~20% lubricant base grade ( solvent de-waxed, paraffinic type )
<10% of corrosion inhibitor ( some formulations use 2 inhibitors,
normally they would only be present at low concentrations, so
it's possible that the inhibitor could be something crude like
an oil that produces a hard film with synthetic additives )
<5% of wetting agent ( probably quite low concentration, other the
formulation would emulsify some water which could affect the
protective film's durability and performance )
<5% of fragrance.
The aerosol versions adds 25% of LPG as propellant to the above
( probably with less of the wetting agent to minimise foam )
My earlier suggestions aren't too different from the above.
Bruce Hamilton
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Index
Mike van Erp
> WD 40 may claim that but all bearing experts will tell you that it is
> the worst thing that you can lube bearings with. I have a great deal
> of experience in this from one of my other hobbies, Radio Controlled
> helicopters. The maintenance of bearings in these aircraft is critical
> and WD-40 is just about the worst thing you can use if you want the
> bearings to lats more than a few hours.
>
> Bob
Hi Bob,
Nice bit of research. Well, like you I won't use WD40 or oil as
neither are much good at dealing with dirt and other impurities
getting into the bearing. At least grease has a chance of trapping
and keeping the dirt away from the rolling surfaces. I hate
maintaining bearings, so do it as little as possible while they are
still rolling acceptably.
I'm not completely convinced, though, because of a number of reasons:
* It appears that WD40 does leave some small amount of lubricant
present in the bearing.
* I think that R/C models present completely different use and
loading of bearings. I don't think that they are comparable with
skating.
* Some skaters, esp. speedskaters, are reputed to use either no
lubricant at all or the smallest amount of thin oil. That means lots
of maintenance, but minimum rolling resistance. For those that are
happy maintaining their bearings this much, WD40 is probably just as
good.
* If we were talking about any other application of bearings, it's
very likely that light oils/WD40 would not provide acceptable
lubrication. IMO it's only in the context of skating where loads and
rpm are very low.
Off topic:
Hey, it's pretty cool that you fly R/C - I used to fly a lot back when
I lived in Zimbabwe, including R/C model pylon racing, aerobatics,
sailplanes, etc., but not helicopters. I also flew full-sized
sailplanes and paragliders extensively.
Cheers,
Mike.
Duncan Clarke
> * If we were talking about any other application of bearings, it's
> very likely that light oils/WD40 would not provide acceptable
> lubrication. IMO it's only in the context of skating where loads and
> rpm are very low.
I don't know what loading 608s are designed for, but I would guess
that is was not as much as they receive during skating. Especially the
lateral loading. I thought (may be wrong though) that they were
designed just for very low loads, but much higher rpm than we ever use...
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Bob Cardone
The problem is, for all practical purposes the lubricant in WD-40 , as
far as a bearing that has to carry any kind of load at all, is
non-existant. It's like trying to lubricate a bearing with cologne. A
much better choice would be Tri-flow if you want a flimsy type of
lubricant. I prefer the Gels that are available today from Sonic and
TK, but that is still too much maintenance for me, so I stick with
grease, either Lithium or one of the synthetic bicycle greases
available at any good bike store like Finish Line Brand.
>Off topic:
>Hey, it's pretty cool that you fly R/C - I used to fly a lot back when
>I lived in Zimbabwe, including R/C model pylon racing, aerobatics,
>sailplanes, etc., but not helicopters. I also flew full-sized
>sailplanes and paragliders extensively.
>
>Cheers,
>Mike.
>
>http://www.LondonSkaters.com
I have a Private pilots license with about 600 hours PIC on single
engine Cessnas and Pipers and I have flown several Simulators
including the Harrier Sim, a Cobra Sim ( Military Sims ) and a 767-400
which I logged 8 Take offs and landings in ( that was a thrill) . I
have never flown a Sailplane but I hear they are great.
Bob
Bob Cardone
I think the 608s are designed for Rpms of 10,000 to 20,000. They are
not designed for lateral loads.
Bob
Mahatma Kane Jeeves
> I think the 608s are designed for Rpms of 10,000 to 20,000. They are
> not designed for lateral loads.
>
> Bob
(coming out of lurk mode)
I recently dismantled a Bissell wet or dry type vacuum cleaner motor
(the commutator was broken), to find two 608 type bearings within.
This motor not only ran at high rpms, but it got really, really hot
too.
What do I use in skate bearings? Automatic transmission fluid. It is
an excellent cleaner and lube, especially when the bearings are
plopped in an ultrasonic cleaner.
Bob Cardone
A Typical application for 608s is in electrical motors. A friend of
mine used an Ultrasonic cleaner years ago and he swore it made the
bearings like brand new.
Bob
Vladimir Ljubojevic
As I used to be a mountainbiker (lot's of dirt involved) I've kept the trick
of cleaning with lubricant (Coleman fuel, just leave the bearings in it for
a night) and after that I use a lubricant as I did with mountainbiking.
Pedro's Sunc Lube is really good, not to thick not too thin and the bearings
really keep rolling... Personally I don't believe in special bearing
lubricants, it's just another laber with the same contents.
Vlad.
"Mike van Erp" <mikevan...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:4dfd0cec.02062...@posting.google.com...