Johnny Joint grease—an experiment
- Thread starter Mike_H
- Start date
nathanotis
TJ Enthusiast
OP
I could put grease in a jar and throw in a whole bunch of kitty litter. I don't think that is going to tell me what I need to know. Kitty litter and oil soak is designed to dry things up. I have no doubt that it would do so, to any grease that it's in contact with. I'm more curious about how long it will take for the soil where I live to dry up this particular grease in a Johnny joint. I really don't care what the kitty litter does in a jar with grease. I'm sure it will thicken and dry it out. But at what ratio of kitty litter to grease? What amount represents the soil where I live? I don't know. I also don't want to drive around to ask the different places I wheel to collect samples of the clay, to then perform an experiment in a jar. I KNOW that the regular types of grease that are recommended for JJ's will dry out where I wheel. So, rather than doing the same thing and expecting different results, I decided to try something different and post my results. I needed to make a change. If I continued to use the Redline, I KNEW I would need to grease the joints after every trip. Those are facts. How does waiting a year for the jar experiment to conclude and dealing with needing to grease the joints every time they get muddy because I haven't changed grease until the experiment is complete equal equal the "hard slow way"?
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You're in good company. The Pitch Drop Experiment has been going on for over a century!
The Pitch Drop Experiment by University of Queensland
Watch University of Queensland's The Pitch Drop Experiment on Livestream.com.
livestream.com
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I'm officially part of the experiment now. I put Energy Suspension Formula 5 Prelube on all 4 JJ's in my rear UCA's last night. Plan to do the front when I can, but the rear's needed the attention the most.
I was generous in my application. Put a good thick coat on both bushing halves as well as the steel ball, then put some extra in the grooves of the bushing halves where it seems at one point grease was intended to flow when supplied through the zerk. I know it filled up every possible space because a small amount was squeezing back out through the threaded zerk hole.
The prelube is amazingly tacky. Feels more like adhesive than lubricant. Made me concerned that breakaway torque was going to be way high. Much to my surprise, it wasn't. I can move the sleeves by hand, which seems comparable to what I got with CV2 on my LCA's.
I was generous in my application. Put a good thick coat on both bushing halves as well as the steel ball, then put some extra in the grooves of the bushing halves where it seems at one point grease was intended to flow when supplied through the zerk. I know it filled up every possible space because a small amount was squeezing back out through the threaded zerk hole.
The prelube is amazingly tacky. Feels more like adhesive than lubricant. Made me concerned that breakaway torque was going to be way high. Much to my surprise, it wasn't. I can move the sleeves by hand, which seems comparable to what I got with CV2 on my LCA's.
Time to suggest this to the projectfarm YouTube.
Yeah, that shit is super tacky. I noticed that when installing my Swayloc. I'll be interested to see your results, but I don't have a dog in this fight, mostly just curious.
OP
Mine got muddy two months ago, and again last month. They're still working, squeak free. I haven't buried my Jeep lately, but it has seen plenty of mud.
I can't move the arms by hand anymore though... With a wrench, they move easily.
I can't move the arms by hand anymore though... With a wrench, they move easily.
Hell, I'll do it. Won't have his production value and I don't know if there's enough to fill a video like his but I talk slower so it might even out.
Next time I'm at my land I'll grab a couple handfuls of the red stuff.
After a test drive I'm happy to be squeak free. I didn't mention in my earlier post that all the joints were pretty much bone dry before and I could barely even move them with a 12" ratchet extension through the sleeve. They made an audible squeak noise when I had one end of the arm unbolted and moved the arm around.
My front UCA frame end joints are about a year newer than the rears and they don't necessarily feel great but they are still quiet...for now. The axle ends are actually a little older than the rears and they also seem to still be quiet...and also the ones I'm least motivated to do since I can't just throw the axle on a kitchen table the way I can a control arm.
My front UCA frame end joints are about a year newer than the rears and they don't necessarily feel great but they are still quiet...for now. The axle ends are actually a little older than the rears and they also seem to still be quiet...and also the ones I'm least motivated to do since I can't just throw the axle on a kitchen table the way I can a control arm.
OP
So far, I'm still squeak free. I don't drive my Jeep much in the winter though... It's been sitting for a month.
same. squeak free but haven't had it wheeling to pick up any clay.
I do have some local soil in a gatorade bottle waiting for me to put it in a dish with some grease to see what happens. Maybe I'll get to that tomorrow.
I do have some local soil in a gatorade bottle waiting for me to put it in a dish with some grease to see what happens. Maybe I'll get to that tomorrow.
Has anyone heard of Tink seal? Its a lube designed for clutch sheaves. The engineers and testers who helped develop the Yamaha Rmax at windrock say its the craziest stuff. Here is the description and link
TinkSeal was originally designed to lubricate between rubber/plastic surfaces and metal. Most lubricants simply cannot do this and will actually soften or dissolve some plastics. Lubricants typically allow two metal surfaces to float upon a thin layer of lubricant oil. TinkSeal is different in that the base oil is only a carrier for the Nano lubricants and atomized particles. The carrier allows the Nano particles to be embedded in the mating surfaces and lower the friction between them. Therefor when the grease eventually disappears, the Nano particles continue to lubricate the joining surfaces. The metal becomes a “treated surface” instead of a lubricated one.
· Plastic, Rubber and Viton Safe
· Non-drying formula, Constant Lubrication
· Low viscosity, high penetration
· Very low wash out performance
· Great on sliding parts, bushings and bearings
TinkSeal was originally designed to lubricate between rubber/plastic surfaces and metal. Most lubricants simply cannot do this and will actually soften or dissolve some plastics. Lubricants typically allow two metal surfaces to float upon a thin layer of lubricant oil. TinkSeal is different in that the base oil is only a carrier for the Nano lubricants and atomized particles. The carrier allows the Nano particles to be embedded in the mating surfaces and lower the friction between them. Therefor when the grease eventually disappears, the Nano particles continue to lubricate the joining surfaces. The metal becomes a “treated surface” instead of a lubricated one.
· Plastic, Rubber and Viton Safe
· Non-drying formula, Constant Lubrication
· Low viscosity, high penetration
· Very low wash out performance
· Great on sliding parts, bushings and bearings
Wait ….I’m supposed to be able to move my JJ control arms by hand ?? Mine are extremely stiff , maybe time for a rebuild….
ok, so here goes.
I collected 2 samples of clay-rich soil from my property in Oklahoma.
We have two flavors of clay...the red stuff, and the white stuff, so I got one of each. I can't tell you if these specific samples were "native" to my property or whether they rode in with some fill dirt because there are 4 houses in different phases of construction on my street and mine is in the middle of them.
I cut the bottoms off of some solo cups to create some petri dishes, placed a generous dab of Redline CV2 grease w/ moly into two of them and a dab of Energy Suspension "Formula 5 Prelube" into the other. I then filled the dish with amounts of dry red and white clay as to completely surround the grease to a consistent depth with a little dust scattered up on the side.
The fifth dish without any dirt is the control, because science.
I'll take photos every 24 hours until either results appear obvious or it becomes apparent that they're going to happen on a slower scale than justifies daily checks.
I collected 2 samples of clay-rich soil from my property in Oklahoma.
We have two flavors of clay...the red stuff, and the white stuff, so I got one of each. I can't tell you if these specific samples were "native" to my property or whether they rode in with some fill dirt because there are 4 houses in different phases of construction on my street and mine is in the middle of them.
I cut the bottoms off of some solo cups to create some petri dishes, placed a generous dab of Redline CV2 grease w/ moly into two of them and a dab of Energy Suspension "Formula 5 Prelube" into the other. I then filled the dish with amounts of dry red and white clay as to completely surround the grease to a consistent depth with a little dust scattered up on the side.
The fifth dish without any dirt is the control, because science.
I'll take photos every 24 hours until either results appear obvious or it becomes apparent that they're going to happen on a slower scale than justifies daily checks.