Is Old Bearing Grease Still Good

Grumpy

The Grumpy Grease Monkey mechanical engineer.
Staff member
I pulled the front hub off of my 64 C30, the bearings are in excellent shape. But, they are covered by a very dark, almost translucent brown maple syrup grease. The bearings were repacked in 1980 and then the truck was parked in 1986. Is that grease still good?
its generally a very good idea, too,
keep a bound note pad with notes in your glove compartment,

on the wiring, wire colors, wire gauges, relays used ,
ground locations, fuse amps, fuel and oil and air filter part numbers, type of oil used,
dates on oil/filter changes, brake fluid replacement dates, when the brake pads/calipers etc were last changed etc.
keep a log on, when alignments were done, what size and brand of tires you use,
and visually inspect the tires, brake fluid and oil levels every few days
and any time you remove a wheel, inspect the brake rotors, pads and ball joints and if the car/trucks up on a lift,
it certainly helps to visually inspect the u-joints, ball joints and do a suspension lube

NEW and most likely far better quality bearing Grease is cheap,
easy to replace and older grease, has a limited life expectancy,
there's been several leaps in bearing and lube technology in the last 35 years.
one of the most common mistakes many guys who try to resurrect older muscle cars make ,
is to not replace lubricants and coolant and brake fluid and wear components like spark plugs and brake shoes, light bulbs, etc.
Id strongly suggest, you clean away the old grease and re-pack the bearings carefully with a new high quality bearing grease.
,try hard not to mix types of grease as occasionally that can cause issues
it certainly helps to do some research on both grease and the car you work on before diving into any project!
and you really should own a shop manual
1996_Corvette.jpg

for any car/truck you own, as reference material


read through the links in this thread

if you fail to read links
and sub links,

your cheating only yourself:(


https://carcaretotal.com/best-wheel-bearing-greases/

https://saferoad.org/best-wheel-bearing-grease/

https://autoquarterly.com/best-wheel-bearing-greases/

https://thewashingtonnote.com/best-wheel-bearing-grease/


https://www.carbibles.com/best-wheel-bearing-grease/

https://www.howacarworks.com/wheels-and-tyres/lubricating-and-reassembling-wheel-bearings


http://garage.grumpysperformance.com/index.php?threads/greasing-ball-joints-etc.3150/#post-95801
 
Last edited:
  1. types of automotive bearing grease
    I know this is going to sound silly but I know guys with 30 years experience that still forget to flip the rear grease seal 180 when filling the damn guns ,then they act surprised when the guns leak grease all over the place,when stored, watch the video

    http://www.machinerylubrication.com/Vie ... grease-gun
    http://www.etrailer.com/faq-grease.aspx
    Overview of Lubricating Grease
    Grease being applied
    Grease is used to lubricate moving parts, usually where metal rubs against metal. It's made to be thick so that it will stay put in places where it would be difficult to keep thinner oil next to moving parts or where oil could leak out, as in automotive wheel bearings and ball joints.
    Grease has two main ingredients--
    A lubricant that combats friction
    A thickener, which gives the grease the consistency that will hold it in place next to moving parts
    Often, a grease product also includes some other ingredient that will improve its performance in a particular application.
    It should be obvious that the quality of the bearings being used, the care taken during the install process and the use of a good quality axle grease will be critical to durability use a good SYNTHETIC OR MOLY GREASE MARKED LB-GC,
    If your running good quality American made bearings and races,your bearings will last a long time if they get regularly re-packed with a good quality grease. I generally repack wheel bearings when I do brake jobs, and have seen them last over 200k
    you won,t get near that with the cheap import bearings in most cases.
    example heres a SINGLE TIMKEN CORVETTE REAR HUB FOR $220
    http://www.ecklerscorvette.com/corvette ... -1996.html
    vethub1.jpg

    you can find a PAIR of rear hubs that APPEAR to be the same part , but are import rear hubs for less than $85 for the pair
    sounds like a screaming good deal, untill you have the rear wheel fall off



    molygreasecan.jpg

    beargre7.jpg

    IVE found this moly grease to perform well and its fairly easy to find at auto stores, some moly grease is not recommended for use with ball bearings, as it can in theory build up over time and reduce internal clearances but Ive used the grease pictured above for decades in both my cars and car transport axle bearings with zero problem, but be aware I also tend to repack bearings every few years and on my car transport trailers I use bearing buddy grease fittings
    timk1a.jpg

    timk2.jpg

    timk3.jpg

    beargre1.jpg


    beargre2.jpg

    beargre6.jpg


    beargre4.jpg

    beargre5.jpg





  2. yeah I know you want to skip over reading the links and sub-links...that would effectively make you lose most of the info
    WATCH VIDEO


    http://www.machinerylubrication.com/Vie ... grease-gun


    http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/h ... rings.html

    http://garage.grumpysperformance.com/index.php?threads/precision-measuring-tools.1390/#post-68864

    viewtopic.php?f=71&t=5373&p=16189&hilit=u+joints+corvette#p16189

    http://www.corvettemagazine.com/63_67_C ... placement/

    http://www.corvettemagazine.com/68_82_C ... placement/

    http://www.ecklerscorvette.com/wheels-a ... lated.html

    http://www.corvettewheelbearings.com/Ch ... index.html

    viewtopic.php?f=71&t=3544&p=9417&hilit=u+joints+corvette#p9417

    viewtopic.php?f=33&t=80&p=7102&hilit=u+joints+corvette#p7102
 
Last edited:
Back
Top