Date: Tue, 7 Jun 2011 13:13:55 -0700
Reply-To: Scott Daniel - Turbovans <scottdaniel@TURBOVANS.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Scott Daniel - Turbovans <scottdaniel@TURBOVANS.COM>
Subject: Re: best lube for sliding door
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I seldom use white lithium grease .
just have never liked it.
and for sure ..I would expect it to attract grit.
what I do use a lot of is a good penetrating synthetic grease.
Everyone one knows Seafoam fuel treatment, right ?
I recently saw that they have a spray lube called Deep Creep.
Really good synthetic spray penetrate ....I hesitate to call it 'grease'
............stuff really can work it's way into things nicely.
I have lubed many a seal roller bearing ..
the stuff goes right inside the bearing, right past the seals.
I had a case where the rear hatch lock was just very hard to push in an 82
diesel vanagon ..
the lube really needs to 'get way in there' .
Without taking anything apart ...and applying that stuff a few times ,
like every day for a while, by golly that stuff DOES creep ........it can
work it's way further to or into something that you can't easily reach.
same van, same product - very sticking injection Advance Cable ..
I spray lube both ends generously ..
doesn't seem to help that much.
so I spray lube the top end a lot, running the cable in and out a few inches
..
spray , spray , spray.
a day or two later ..the entire cable was moving nicely.
By Golly ...............that stuff DOES creep and get in there !!
white lithium to me is an 'external's grease ..it gets ON things ..
but not INTO them so much , like a good spray penetrating spray grease will.
the brand hard hardly matters.
LPS..
there's a great one from any good hardware store.
about 10 bucks.
I get my hands on an old 'new' vanagon and a can of that juice..
and I am just going nutty on about 300 spots on the van.
here's another on ..
usually a spray can of good juice is around 10 bucks.
Home Depot is selling some by BP Blaster ( another great product - their
penetrating oil ) for only $ 2 ..
I bought 10 can of that Home Depot BP Blaster spray penetrating lube ..
works great ..
bit of a lingering perfume smell..
but for the price ...just great juice.
you can debate this forever....
whether to 'take it all apart or not' ..
and Of Course ..those who say you must take it all apart down the rollers
or bearings, clean them meticulously and reassemble with fresh high quality
lube or grease are right ..
they are totally right ..
however...
cleverly and externally applied products can do 80 or 90 % as well, at
least.
And if you apply lube considerably more often than what most mechanisms get
..
which is 'never' or once every 15 years when you can see the thing is
hurtin' ...
if you do it often ..
any mechanism will last as well as it possibly can.
there really is no excuse for metal-to-metal wear,
when there are so many fantastic spray penetrating synthetic greases that
work and last so well. It's child's play to freshen up most mechanisms
with it.
door locks..
good 'creepy' lube will work it's way down the door lock button to the lock
further down into the door.
the driver's door lock in my 29 year old pretty darn cherry sunroof Diesel
Vanagon ..
works like it's brand new ..
just the smoothest lock/unlock with the key you've ever felt.
Just from adding good spray lube with good creep properties a few times .
Scott
www.turbovans.com
----- Original Message -----
From: "Frank Condelli" <RAlanen@AOL.COM>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Tuesday, June 07, 2011 2:37 AM
Subject: Re: best lube for sliding door
Grease where you put it is just attracting dust & dirt that will
eventually get into the BALL BEARINGS of the rollers. It's the ball
bearings that really need the lube. Yes, it requires taking everything
apart to get in there but just putting grease between the roller and the
metal track it rides on is not the best solution.
On 2011-06-06, at 4:37 PM, Automatic digest processor wrote:
> I just cleaned / lubed all the sliding door guides a few weeks ago. I
> used
> "White Lithium Grease" which is a good choice for this purpose.
>
> For example:
> http://www.amazon.com/Panef-Corp-GS-20-White-Grease/dp/B000BXOFV6
>
> Your local home depot or equivalent should have it,not sure about the
> local
> FLAPS.
>
> I put it on the bottom slide / roller, and also inside upper track and the
> rear track. Previously there was a "metal on metal" sound coming from
> these
> areas, a bit of this grease quieted the whole thing down. I used very
> sparingly, since I didn't want a whole bunch of extra grease hanging
> around
> collecting dirt, so a little already made a difference. I think using
> even
> more grease would provide even less noise. To grease the rear roller, I
> didn't have to remove the cover, just put the grease in the right exact
> place with the 2 finger feel method: one finger with grease on the tip,
> the
> other finger clean, as a guide to find the right places. The bottom
> roller
> is a regular once-a-year maintenance area for me, clean and replace a bit
> of
> grease.
>
> Reason for doing this? I installed FatMat inside the sliding door, and
> wanted to quiet the rollers at the same time.
Cheers,
Frank Condelli
Almonte, Ontario, Canada
'87 Westy & Lionel Trains (Collection for sale)
Frank Condelli & Associates - Vanagon/Vanagon Westfalia Service in the
Ottawa Valley
Vanagon Stainless Steel Exhaust Systems
BusFusion a VW Camper camping event, Almonte, ON, June 09 ~ 12, 2011