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Old 06-13-2012 | 05:58 PM
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Default degresing bearings

Ok guys just guarging intrest on who flushes there bearing greeses and oils there bearings

and if so what oils etc and relibality times are like

cheers phil
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Old 06-13-2012 | 06:29 PM
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Default Nope

I keep the grease. Grease is the word.
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Old 06-13-2012 | 08:02 PM
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What bearings are you talking about? Clutch bell bearings, wheel bearings, diff bearings, etc? What bearings? $1 bearings? Ceramic balls? Rubber/metal shield?

Unless you like dissembling your car and reoiling bearings every day you run, I would leave them.

There's only certain instances where replacing grease with oil is better (ceramics with PTFE lube, clutch bell bearings where grease might get on clutch shoes, etc).

I will say the $1 bearings sometimes are very inconsistent with grease...so maybe repacking the with your own grease would be worthwhile - though for $1, that's a lot of work.
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Old 06-13-2012 | 08:02 PM
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D.P.
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Old 06-14-2012 | 04:01 AM
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I was just generalising here with the bearings

I ment any realy but have just done it on a mbx6r with a mix of advids and mugen bearings

i have also tried it on clutch bell bearings in the past but they seem to fail real quick i flushed and cleaned them with brake cleaner and relubed them with syn high speed bearing oil
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Old 06-14-2012 | 07:30 AM
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Rsickles is right on the money. I once tried degreasing all the chassis bearings and just using oil to get less rolling resistance. It back fired on me bad. The oil doesnt protect from rust and grit like the grease does. Keep em greased.
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Old 06-14-2012 | 07:36 AM
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I have done this before and after cleaning out the bearings, I filled them with O'Lube. Never had any issues and the car's drive-train was very smooth, but you do have to keep an eye on it to see if relubing is needed.
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Old 06-14-2012 | 09:14 AM
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Grease is your friend. After 2-3 long track days I pull the seals off, spray the bearings out with Nitrowash or similar, re-grease with Avid Slide grease and re-install the seals. I do this on all the drive train bearings on my MBX6r. It's really not alot of extra work and lets me know that the bearings are healthy, and smooth spinning. Haven't had to replace a bearing in a very long time. Of course I don't do this for the clutch bearings. I replace them after 2 track days.
I've heard alot of people complain about these bearings or those bearings being gritty, or notchy. Alot of that is just dirt in the bearing that gets pushed in by aircompressors or spray cleaners, or just lack of maintainence.
My 2c
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Old 06-14-2012 | 09:27 AM
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Why would I wash out perfectly good grease? If dirt is on the inside bearing goes in garbage. Clutch bearings never get taken apart or relubed, straight to garbage can.

Clutch bearings failing can put a ton of shock load on the case of you engine when they sieze and grab. Keep in mind that engine blocks are just cheap cast pot metal.

I repack the other bearings with axle grease. Then I coat the outside of the bearing with Brake Pin Lube that'll seal them up water tight.
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Old 06-15-2012 | 07:18 AM
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RSickles is right on. For steel bearings (OEM, Advantage, Avid, Boca, Acer, etc.) anywhere except the clutch, keep the grease in. The advantage you'd derive from degreasing and oiling those bearings is quite small, and once you do so, you really need to pull the seals from the bearings after every race day and re-oil. Steel bearings stay greased for a long time (months!)...but when oiled, requires regular maintenance.

For clutch bearings, you can keep the grease in for longevity -- however, some of the grease will fling into the inside of the clutch bell, causing the shoes to slip and the bell to get very hot, which is a risk for bearing, shoe, and spring life. Many de-grease their clutch bell bearings (steel), and add a drop or two or bearing oil instead. This causes minimal fling into the bell, but requires much more maintenance.

IF you're going to oil instead of grease your non-clutch bearings, I highly recommend TS-1+ lube from TrackStar R/C. We've tried almost a dozen bearing lubes recently (actually looking for one to OEM and sell under our brand), and we've recently made the decision to use TS-1+. It's an outstanding custom mixed bearing lube. Many of the other bearing oils caused or allowed rust in the bearings...this one doesn't. Good stuff.

Ceramics are a different story. The balls are designed such that they stay lubricated much longer with oil, and are designed to be used and maintained with oil (NOT grease!). They do require more maintenance than steel bearings (recommend checking, cleaning, and re-oiling every 2-3 race days), but not as much as steel bearings that have been oiled.
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Old 06-15-2012 | 08:45 AM
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I use oil in my bearings but I do maintain them every time I run. Out goes the used ones and in goes the new ones. I have several set of bearings. I throw them out when it doesn't spin right. Not really a biggie for me cause I tear apart my car every run. I use lighter fluid to clean bearing and acer syn oil for relubing. I really like a smooth drive train.
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Old 06-16-2012 | 09:06 AM
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I use steel bearings and only oil the wheel bearings. When using oil you have to clean and reoil after every race day. I pop out seals and spray with wd40 and blow out a couple times. I've tried hobby bearing oils and synthetic motor oils. I prefer mobil 1 syn. Clutch replace every race day and others clean same way but pack with a good high temp bearing grease.
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Old 06-17-2012 | 02:21 AM
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Ive used tons and tons of bearings in my YoYo competition throws. The bearing totally determines exactly what feel and responsiveness the yoyo will play at. Higher lubed is more responsive less lube is less responsive.

We cleaned all of our bearings the same way, take of the steel guards on the sides of bearings usually involved removing a c clip. Then flush with mineral spirits (odorless) Works wonders every time. Just make sure you let them dry very well before you re-lube and replace.
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