I would appreciate a very down to earth, practical recommendation for what grease I should buy to load into my grease gun that will probably live in that gun for the next 10 years and be squeezed into anything with a zirc fitting that I have when I think it needs it.
I know there's tons of stuff written about grease but at the end of the day when I'm staring at a retail shelf of grease tubes I'm probably not going to be able to put theory into practice based on what I see on the product labels.
Just to throw some words out -
High pressure, high temperature, lithium, cerulean, etc. What do I want?
What has zirc fittings? Various chassis joints. Then I have some wheel bearings (pillow-block bearings on a furnace fan). U-joints on a car drive shaft. Do they all need their own type of grease? I don't know. No clue.
I had a grease gun, can't find it, it took the large tubes (12 oz? 14 oz?), required 2 hands to use, was an absolute nightmare to load a tube in and screw the spring-loaded end cap on.
I recently bought a gun for the smaller tubes (3 oz I think). Trigger pump, needs only 1 hand to hold and squeeze. It has solid and flexible injection line that I can change to suit.
I've had a look around, I don't think it's going to be easy to find a store with a good selection of grease in the small tubes. So that could be a problem. Beyond that - what am I looking for?
I have 2 tubes on my garage shelf:
Mystic Hi-Temp multi-purpose grease (it's red). It has "far more protection than most greases". Protection? From what? Do I want protection, or do I want lubrication? I don't see the magic word "lithium" anywhere on the label.
The other tube - Unival, general purpose Hi-temp grease for wheel bearings and chasis. This is a Home Hardware store brand. It's dark green. Smell is similar to the Mystic. No lithium either.
I have 1 car ('67 Dodge) with wheel bearings that I might have to grease with my bare hands, but otherwise none of my other vehicles have grease-able wheel bearings. Wheel bearings might get hot, but I wouldn't think chassis joints (ball joints, tie-rod ends) would get hot. So does "Hi-temp" grease mean anything to me?
And what about lithium? What sort of mechanical object with a zirc fitting most definately requires a grease with lithium?
So what exactly is the deal with grease?
I know there's tons of stuff written about grease but at the end of the day when I'm staring at a retail shelf of grease tubes I'm probably not going to be able to put theory into practice based on what I see on the product labels.
Just to throw some words out -
High pressure, high temperature, lithium, cerulean, etc. What do I want?
What has zirc fittings? Various chassis joints. Then I have some wheel bearings (pillow-block bearings on a furnace fan). U-joints on a car drive shaft. Do they all need their own type of grease? I don't know. No clue.
I had a grease gun, can't find it, it took the large tubes (12 oz? 14 oz?), required 2 hands to use, was an absolute nightmare to load a tube in and screw the spring-loaded end cap on.
I recently bought a gun for the smaller tubes (3 oz I think). Trigger pump, needs only 1 hand to hold and squeeze. It has solid and flexible injection line that I can change to suit.
I've had a look around, I don't think it's going to be easy to find a store with a good selection of grease in the small tubes. So that could be a problem. Beyond that - what am I looking for?
I have 2 tubes on my garage shelf:
Mystic Hi-Temp multi-purpose grease (it's red). It has "far more protection than most greases". Protection? From what? Do I want protection, or do I want lubrication? I don't see the magic word "lithium" anywhere on the label.
The other tube - Unival, general purpose Hi-temp grease for wheel bearings and chasis. This is a Home Hardware store brand. It's dark green. Smell is similar to the Mystic. No lithium either.
I have 1 car ('67 Dodge) with wheel bearings that I might have to grease with my bare hands, but otherwise none of my other vehicles have grease-able wheel bearings. Wheel bearings might get hot, but I wouldn't think chassis joints (ball joints, tie-rod ends) would get hot. So does "Hi-temp" grease mean anything to me?
And what about lithium? What sort of mechanical object with a zirc fitting most definately requires a grease with lithium?
So what exactly is the deal with grease?