Axle grease???

[Roy]

What do people recommend for greasing up the axle?

I find on my 2006 streetbob that the axle gets pretty siezed in the rear wheel between tyre changes - have tried copper slip which does not seem to work very well.

Recommendations appreciated.

Cheers, Roy

[Steppenwulf]

I use HD bearing grease, works fine for me and I also use it in all my nipples, head bearings, foot controls etc. Didn't use it on my pivot shaft got stuff from the tractor suppliers with a high ratio of anti-seize in it.

[SJC69]

I use Castrol graphited grease on the axles.

I've just had the Sportster wheels off and the rear spindle was a bugger to get out then had to be cleaned up as it had corrosion on it, I had used copperslip on it for some reason but the graphited on the front which was fine!

Castrol Graphited Grease





A soft, waterproof grease, developed for the lubrication of springs and chains. Based on a high viscosity oil with a low melting thickener, it contains colloidal graphite for additional load carrying.
The graphite prevents metal-to-metal contact under shock loading conditions

[grbrown]

I use a similar pot of Castrol, with molybdenum disulphide grease in it. It is even more black, messy, sticky and wonderful!

I used to use graphited grease once, but used it up after I read the label and dicovered what it is intended for. I have owned three MZ two-strokes, with enclosed chains and it is great on them!

The Harley stuff is bright blue, which takes some getting used to - looks like it should be edible....

[SJC69]

Castrol Moly Grease





High melting point, lithium based grease containing molybdenum, providing dry lubrication under extreme operating conditions.
Ideally suited for the following applications; King pins and bushes, shackles and suspension trunnions, bevel worm and peg steering boxes

Castrol Classic Greases link

[Roy]

Jeez, thats a lotta choice

Clicked on the link and have emailed Castrol to see what they advice for a motorcycle rear axle. Looks like anyone of the choices you provided would do the job, however would be interesting to see what the co say. Will post their reply and look forward to not having to knock my axle out with a sledgehammer (I kid you not) the next time I change my tyre. Will take the advice and also put it in my forwards.

Cheers chaps, will let you know what the big C comes back with

[Roy]

Castrol came back with:

"You could try a calcium based greasesuch as Castrol CL - this is better water resistance than lithiumgreases so may offer a longer life. Other alternatives are the Molygrease - this is a lithium grease, but with moly to provide extra antiseize properties."

I could not easily find a local castol grease supplier so have bought another brand but with the same 'ingredients' as Castrol CL. I'll know if it worked on the next tyre change

Thanks for your help and pointing me in the right direction.

[SJC69]

I am surprised they did not just say LM!

I have some CL too which seems to be thinner than the graphited.
I just like the graphaited better for the axels which is also waterproof.

Thanks for posting up Castrol's answer

PS A pot of grease wll normally last you for years so you should not need another for some time!

[Roy]

I ended up just buying a off the shelf grease from my local motor factors as people don't seem to stock castrol grease in Ciren.

Thats history, I'm happy to say that after 2 months of my axle being in situ with grease instead of 'copper-stick' that my axle now comes out with ease. I needed to pop it out over the weekend and it was an easy pull out, no sledgehammer required.

Copper-stick had also worked wonders on my fwd controls, so have taken these apart and greased 'em up and they are much better/work as they should for longer than a few weeks with grease.

I also used grease when I was internally wiring my handlebars, helped get the wiring past the last tight bend.

Grease is the way forward, wonder what other problems I can fix with it, there seems to be a world of possibilities