I'm ready to put my BEGI back together but noticed the grease in one area dried up, actually flakes off in chunks. I bought this directly from bell engineering about 2 years ago and it hasn't been used yet. I thought it was wet when I took it apart a few days ago but what kind of grease dries up like that? The dry areas are medium gray in color... the wet areas are a darker gray, almost black. I'm going to clean the whole unit and wondered if I should use anything special. I have regular ball bearing grease, synthetic bearing grease and a special white polyurethane grease which is resistant to pretty much anything and will stay put.
BEGI FMU Grease
- Thread starter 65Cobra
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BEGI says to use white lithium. I lubed mine recently because of a noise. Fixed my problem immediately.
rocketgeezer
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I used a little shot of chain lube seems to work fine
rocketgeezer
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Hey Joe, had the Turbo to the Dragon yet, we still owe you and the better half Dinner
Anti-seize compound? If he's using anti-seize compound, that would explain why it dried up like it did. I use that stuff all the time... for threaded parts... but that's the last thing I'd use inside the BEGI. That's scary but I need to call Corky in the morning anyway so I'll run this by him.
I just spoke to a tech at BEGI just 2 weeks ago. He told me white lithium. PLEASE call them and let me know if you get the same answer. Thanks!!!!!
Okay, I just hung up with Corkey and here is the answer...
He NEVER used anti-seize. He WAS using Molykote from Dow Corning and admitted it looked like anti-seize but it was not anti-seize. Although there are many variations of Molykote per www.dowcorning.com he was using a high pressure, high temperature Molykote grease, which he admitted was actually overkill for the BEGI units.
When I told him I found it dried up inside my never used 2 year old BEGI he said that was the one disadvantage of the Molykote but he didn't expect it to dry up that fast.
He switched to lithium grease about 6 months ago, not only because there was no need to use such a high end grease as Molykote, but because lithium was 1/5th the price.
I asked him if he ever used polyurethane grease but he never did so I only suggested he might just want to look into it because my understanding is it should have more than enough lubricating properties for the BEGI but it stays put and doesn't dry out.
That's pretty much where the conversation ended, so the rest of this post are just my opinions and/or suggestions...
The suggestions regarding the use of anti-seize are wrong. Anyone that really uses anti-seize should know that it dries out. The Molykote may take longer to dry out but they still have one thing in common, once any grease dries out, it could start doing more harm than good because the lubricating properties are gone and what remains will actually start causing more wear between two moving surfaces.
Could this drying out issue have anything to do with the howling issue I've read about in other posts? I'm not sure but some have said changing the shim didn't stop the howling. So maybe some owners applied grease at the same time, thinking the issue was fixed by the thicker shim, when it could have been fixed by the grease. Just a thought.
I would go with the lithium grease at this point, but I think I'm going to check into the polyurethane grease idea, but even if I decide to use it, I'm not suggesting anyone should.
Finally, something I noticed on my BEGI, was the bottom of the plunger that pushes against the top shim, had some obvious rough marks, clearly due to the machining process. I felt that was serious considering the top shim is only 0.003" thick, so I used fine sandpaper to smooth it out. You might want to consider checking yours the next time you open the unit.
He NEVER used anti-seize. He WAS using Molykote from Dow Corning and admitted it looked like anti-seize but it was not anti-seize. Although there are many variations of Molykote per www.dowcorning.com he was using a high pressure, high temperature Molykote grease, which he admitted was actually overkill for the BEGI units.
When I told him I found it dried up inside my never used 2 year old BEGI he said that was the one disadvantage of the Molykote but he didn't expect it to dry up that fast.
He switched to lithium grease about 6 months ago, not only because there was no need to use such a high end grease as Molykote, but because lithium was 1/5th the price.
I asked him if he ever used polyurethane grease but he never did so I only suggested he might just want to look into it because my understanding is it should have more than enough lubricating properties for the BEGI but it stays put and doesn't dry out.
That's pretty much where the conversation ended, so the rest of this post are just my opinions and/or suggestions...
The suggestions regarding the use of anti-seize are wrong. Anyone that really uses anti-seize should know that it dries out. The Molykote may take longer to dry out but they still have one thing in common, once any grease dries out, it could start doing more harm than good because the lubricating properties are gone and what remains will actually start causing more wear between two moving surfaces.
Could this drying out issue have anything to do with the howling issue I've read about in other posts? I'm not sure but some have said changing the shim didn't stop the howling. So maybe some owners applied grease at the same time, thinking the issue was fixed by the thicker shim, when it could have been fixed by the grease. Just a thought.
I would go with the lithium grease at this point, but I think I'm going to check into the polyurethane grease idea, but even if I decide to use it, I'm not suggesting anyone should.
Finally, something I noticed on my BEGI, was the bottom of the plunger that pushes against the top shim, had some obvious rough marks, clearly due to the machining process. I felt that was serious considering the top shim is only 0.003" thick, so I used fine sandpaper to smooth it out. You might want to consider checking yours the next time you open the unit.
Nope. Just pay close attention to how everything comes apart so you can put it back together properly. Have paper so you can take notes as you go. Sometimes I even take pictures as I go along just to make sure, especially if I'm not putting it back together the same day. And just because you think you'll put back together the same day doesn't mean you will. Mine was never used so I didn't have issues of gaskets needing replaced, etc. But you never know that stuff when the item has been used, so do this when you can live without it for a few days, just in case you need to order new gaskets, or whatever, from Bell Experimental Group - BEGi
Good luck.
Good luck.
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