Caring for bearings

[dibble34]

right, have an xb4 which i ran in the wet. got home took all the wheel and diff bearings out. some felt a little crunchy, but none were seized. i took one side of the sheid off on each of them and left them to soak in a pot of gt85 (fully submerged) for about 10 days. i just got them out to oil and put back and nearly all of them have seized! they dont look rusty, but are locked solid. bit miffed, can anyone explain why this would happen?

[alex97]

If there was water in the bearing before you submerged them then the water might have got trapped in the bearing .

[mattr]

GT85 is rubbish for that sort of thing.
Give it a blast with it by all means (or WD40) to clean it out.
Then if you are going to soak the bearings, use some proper wet lube, bicycle chain lube wouldn't be far off the right sort of consistency.
You need to move the bearings too. Make sure the oil gets in everywhere, no pockets of water or bits of dirt wedged in there.

What sort of bearings were they? Metal or rubber sealed (or double rubber.....)

[SlowOne]

Oil and water don't mix, so putting them in the oil (GT85) without cleaning them out means the trapped water will rust the parts anyway.

WD40 is water dispersing, GT85 is only a lubricant. Take all the bearings out, remove the shield/s and flush them through with WD40 or motor spray until all the water and dirt is gone. A final flush with motor spray, then dry them, then GT85 to lubricate - done!

HTH

[szymanski2oo1]

Can I ask what's in bearings ? Are they all filled with some sort of oil or are they some greased with a silicone type grease... I remember reading somewhere not all bearings are the same ?? Anyone know ?

[dibble34]

They are the kit xray rubber shielded bearings. I didn't do anything with them before submerging apart from taking the sheild if one side as didn't realise it would not disperse the water. Looks like I need some wd40 as well thanks all for the info

[Allan1875]

Originally Posted by SlowOne

Oil and water don't mix, so putting them in the oil (GT85) without cleaning them out means the trapped water will rust the parts anyway.

WD40 is water dispersing, GT85 is only a lubricant. Take all the bearings out, remove the shield/s and flush them through with WD40 or motor spray until all the water and dirt is gone. A final flush with motor spray, then dry them, then GT85 to lubricate - done!

HTH

Pretty sure GT85 is a water displacer also. I use this on my cars prior to racing to dispense water instead of WD40 because WD40 eats rubber seals in your shocks etc.

Edit:
http://www.gt85.co.uk/wp-content/upl...splacement.pdf

[SlowOne]

That is misleading in so many ways!!

It proves that GT85 does not mix with water as well as the 'leading competitor' - whoever that is!

It ignores the fact that if you are going to lift away water and grease from a surface then you have to dissolve or emulsify it! It's similar to the way that detergent works in your dishwasher and when doing the washing up - the 'soap' (WD40) wraps itself around the dirt and water and allows it to 'dissolve' into the WD40 that is flushing it away.

It ignores the fact that WD40 is primarily oil-based with a volatile solvent to carry it to the point of use. The solvent has two uses - to carry away water and dirt and to allow the oil to be delivered to the points of use. Once the solvent has evaporated the oil remains as a guard to prevent corrosion.

The GT85 has PTFE in it, but that is a lubricant, not a corrosion inhibitor. As can be seen from the demonstration, GT85 is not miscible with water, so it can only displace it if it forces its way across the water. In the demo, the leading competitor has emulsified the water and/or dissolved the grease so it is no longer in contact with the metal, whereas the GT85 is sitting on the water which could still be in contact with the metal.

The GT85 you sat your bearings in did not get behind the water in the bearings. As their demonstration shows, the GT85 simply sat on the water which was still in contact with the bearings - as you found out when they came out seized!

Once the GT85 is delivered to the point of use and the PTFE is present, that will act as a barrier to water clinging to metal. We used to use GT85 as the way of preventing water staying in bearings and getting to the metal surfaces, and then WD40 (WD stands for water displacement!) to flush it out before the next race, or to take it home. I hope that helps.

Hotshot - that is just so innovative; top marks!

[Welshy40]

Gt85 is the best. Teflon repels grime unlike wd40 which attracts dirt. Did ten years in Wales with heavy rain and just squirt gt85 into each bearing on both sides to rinse out dirt, then leave in the oil overnight and job done. Get a cloth and rotate bearings to remove any excess dirt and can use a light oil if you want then bung back in car.