Grease

[yorkie_chris]

Originally Posted by timwilky

But never on fixings,

Why's that?

[embee]

Moly types greases are usually for oscillating plain bearings like old-fashioned swingarms using bushes, old car suspension bushes or ball joints etc.

Any rotating element ball/roller bearing should use a straightforward grease like Castrol LM. Low speed or oscillating types (suspension links, steering head etc) can be fully packed with grease, but higher speed (and I'd include wheel bearings in that) should be typically only half packed (i.e. pack one side of the ball bearing and leave the other side clear, it'll work its way round). The reason is that the grease gets sheared and becomes too hot, the higher the speed the more important it becomes, at very high speeds the amount of grease is reduced.

Incidentally CV joints in car driveshafts use a special grease due to the very demanding conditions.

And yes you're right, copper grease is not a lubricant as such, it's an anti-sieze product principally, although it can work where there is fretting type issues (back of brake pads sort of falls into this), the copper powder acts as a solid lubricant. It shouldn't really be used with steel fasteners into aluminium (too many different metals going on) but having said that it often is with very rarely any problems. The aluminium version is intended for this.

[yorkie_chris]

Originally Posted by embee

The aluminium version is intended for this.

What's that one then, ali-slip or some such thing like that?

I've always used copper slip on steel bolts going into ally, just seems to "ping" when you remove it then wind out nicely, whats the worst that could happen? If it siezes, then it would have done that anyway.

From what I remember and the fact that suzuki tend to mix a little zinc in with there stuff means that you get a rather nasty chemical reaction between the steel and aluminium. This is why they go so fuzy and can be a bitch to get out, I imagine the ali version will help prevent this, though I have always got away with it too.

I got my pot of red rubber grease through the post today ... I have greased up my rear calliper on my bike and my was-sticking piston on one of my car callipers ... its now almost s3xual in its smoothness of operation!!

[embee]

Originally Posted by yorkie_chris

What's that one then, ali-slip or some such thing like that?

I've always used copper slip on steel bolts going into ally, just seems to "ping" when you remove it then wind out nicely, whats the worst that could happen? If it siezes, then it would have done that anyway.

The alum anti-seize I use is the Loctite 8060.

As said (and as you say), copper-slip has been used for years on steel bolts into aluminium with little problem. Recently various manufacturers have issued service bulletins saying copper grease should not be used on (alum) brake caliper fixings, and alum type anti-seize paste should be used. I don't know whether this was a response to real or theoretical problems.

Originally Posted by embee

The alum anti-seize I use is the Loctite 8060.

As said (and as you say), copper-slip has been used for years on steel bolts into aluminium with little problem. Recently various manufacturers have issued service bulletins saying copper grease should not be used on (alum) brake caliper fixings, and alum type anti-seize paste should be used. I don't know whether this was a response to real or theoretical problems.

AP Racing specifically stated not to use coppa-slip on their 6 pots that I had on my Gixer thou, so I started using Wurth brake grease, which is aluminium based.

What about the grease for the sliding pins in the brake calipers? The Suzuki manual recommends silicone grease - where can I buy that? Or will multipurpose grease/copper slip do?

[yorkie_chris]

That's not right good for the rubbers, not copper slip there.

I use a blob of rubber grease, better than nowt.

You can get silicone grease from maplin.