Johnny Joint grease—an experiment

freedom_in_4low said:

the joints I put the Energy Suspension F5 prelube in were the first to creak and looked and felt like they had never been greased, so I won't be using that again.

I came across Currie's recommendation of a non-synthetic, moly grease, and I'm on the hunt to see what else I can try since CV2 is synthetic. Wondering if anybody has tried an NLGI #1? It's supposed to be softer which might be counterintuitive for its longevity, but maybe the lower viscosity will allow it to flow in through the grease zerks? I could tolerate more frequent greasing if I didn't have to pull it and disassemble.

Chevron has a product but I can't find it to buy online, so I may have to bundle it in with a trip to the city.

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Brianj5600 said:

I can see using moly in metal to metal, but not metal to polyurethane? Moly and the thickeners seem to get embedded on the on the ball and the polyurethane. The Hotchkis silicone grease is a #2 grease and I had no trouble getting the grease through the drilled urethane. I did not disassemble the joints to clean them up, which I should have, but it seems to still have silicone grease in the joint.

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freedom_in_4low said:

that was my thought process initially as well. I tended to take Currie's word for it but maybe they just recommend that because it works well enough in their testing environment. There are definitely some inferences to be made of the fact that most other established suspension companies using polyurethane bushings use silicone. I don't really care what it is if it works, and If I can get something to pump through then it's problem solved.

The Energy Suspension stuff seems a lot thicker than #2. More like vaseline. Maybe I'll continue this experiment with Hotchkis. Wish they weren't so proud of that stuff...I can buy 6 tubes of the Chevron moly for the price of 1 Hotchkis silicone.

I'm in the process of swapping DDB's into a few of my JJ locations but I'm keeping the JJ's in case I end up going back, and some locations (like the ones in a welded barrel) aren't likely to ever get changed so I'm still interested in solving this issue (I'm aware that Metalcloak makes a DF kit to fit in a JJ barrel but I'm unwilling to make the barrel the bearing surface when I can't easily replace it).

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Superjay5 said:

Question regarding the zerk fittings. Are you guys leaving them in place? Or somehow capping them off?

I am in the process of installing the midarm, and just a quick observation it looks if I put the zerks where I can access easily it also places them in harms way and the first rock will smash them.

Maybe with a different fitting on my grease gun I could get to them if I tuck them up, but just curious what you guys are doing

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Apparition said:

Have you considered taking a look at the Ag Talk forum? A quick search for "best grease for mud and clay applications" showed that there's a bit of discussion on it from many people who pull their equipment through some of the dustiest and dirtiest environments all day long.

Example: https://talk.newagtalk.com/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=650743&DisplayType=flat&setCookie=1

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Any of the synthetic greases don't turn to dirt. I was a cheapy grease man until someone finally convinced me to try synthetic. Now I spend less time trying to unclog grease fittings and bushings. I just need to figure out how to convince my help not to waste so much. It is expensive.

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freedom_in_4low said:

haven't even thought about it, but that makes some sense.

That thread you linked had an interesting post.



That doesn't sound promising for the non synthetic stuff, and I think some of us can attest that yes, even the synthetic stuff will eventually turn to dirt. Maybe it takes longer.

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Why for years did we put clay (dirt)in bearings and think it was a good idea?

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Brianj5600 said:

I will probably skip to a silicone PTFE like Super Lube next time.

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Mrholland said:

Ok ppl way smarter than me, which do y'all think??

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Brianj5600 said:

I will probably skip to a silicone PTFE like Super Lube next time.

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NashvilleTJ said:

I’d go with the food grade. I always like to eat off of my control arms.

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