Which Grease

I have a 6inch traction engine with lots of grease nipples for the bronze bearings. I have been told to use no 2 grease.

There seem to be many types of no 2 grease some of which only up to 80c which seems a bit cool for main traction engine bearings etc. Any ideas please.

Nye Lubricants probably knows more about grease than the rest of us put together

… and their products are generally well into in the ‘reassuringly expensive’ category.

They have put together this informative page about NLGI  numbers: **LINK**

https://www.nyelubricants.com/need-to-know-grease-consistency

Very clearly; when specifying a grease this is only part of the story

… but I think it helps with the #2 reference

MichaelG.

Edited By Michael Gilligan on 21/04/2022 22:36:15

Thank you Michael. I think the gent who recomended no2 grease is from an age when there where nt many types of grease !

How hot do the bearings get ?

I have used grease to lubricate the bronze bearings on my traction engine because they are slow running and there are no seals to stop oil running thru. (messes up the driveway)

The hornplates where they are attached do get warm but nowhere like 80 deg C and I use the same grease that I use on the wheel bearings for my car trailer.

80C is too hot to hold your hand on. Bearings should not be getting that hot.

Common wheel bearing grease should be OK as Paul says above. These are usually a No 2 grade extreme pressure grease designed for high temps around disc brakes etc. Or Castrol sells an EPL 2 grease that is a No 2 grease. I suspect the same as wheel bearing grease but in a different package.  Use synthetic wheel bearing grease if you want to go deluxe. Unless your bronze bushings are the sintered Oilite type, which would need oil.

Edited By Hopper on 22/04/2022 02:19:21

Go to any motor factor and ask for wheel bearing grease, water resistant if you wish. Call Morris oils if you want advice - they do a huge range of oils and greases for the classic vehicle folk. Noel.

It's probably a hangover the days when men were men and oil coming out of the ground was a futuristic thing. Engines used to have tallow cups for lubrication, tallow being beef dripping which sets hard when cold.

I was always under the impression that grease used for bronze bearings is a bit special as the additives in a lot of standard greases can attack bronze.

Castrol says their LMM series and EPL series greases are suitable for plain bearings and copper alloys.

Even though oil runs out, it does have the advantage of carrying away contaminants. Likewise grease needs to be changed periodically, for the same reason. Maybe not so important with good running surfaces, but more important to prevent further wear, once it starts.

I recall some ‘wear-rate trials’, carried out to compare cheap versus expensive grinding media. The ‘cheap’ stuff apparently came out better value because the expensive materials produced hard carbides which acted as a grinding medium with the more expensive material. Proper tests, where the wear-products were removed, as the test proceeded, resulted in far superior results for the more expensive product.

Very interesting.

The engine came with grease nipples for most of the bearings and I think it best to convert to oilers. I never imagined there could be so many different greases including those which attack bronze! Great !. I know which oil to use and had practice at making wicks.

Grease is simply oil in a suitable base - usually a soap.

Save yourself a lot of work and phone Castrol UK Technical Enquiries 0049 234 539 7082 to confirm the right grease to use.

Edited By Hopper on 23/04/2022 23:38:26

Or you can email Castrol classic tech enquiries at  [email protected]

Edited By Hopper on 24/04/2022 00:50:15

There are plenty of oils that will attack the yellow metals ! It's not just some greases ! As Hopper has said and I did in an earlier post, IF you have concerns about the lubricants call castrol, or Morris Lubricants, on 01743232200. Good luck, Noel.