Front trunion lubrication

[Jonathan Ratty]

Whilst doing a little pre-winter maintenance, I decided to go round the nipples with a grease gun (as it were...).

 

So now I have pumped grease into the trunions on top of the EP90 OIL that is already in there. Bu***r, bu***r etc.

 

Is there a simple way to flush it out, or am I to disassemble the trunions, clean them out & start agin with oil? Does it matter that there is a mixture in there & should I do this sooner rather than later?

 

Jonathan

[Mr Locust]

Just put oil in the gun and pump away. The grease and oil will find it's way nicely onto the inside of the wheel rim. 😬

 

Ian

 

Green and Silver Roadsport 😬

[eric]

You should oil them with EP 90

 

But always have a look on the vertical link / trunnion play

 

Don't hesitate to change them regularly on 20000 miles / 2 or 3 years basis

 

To avoid failure pbs

 

eric

[Joe 90]

Having discovered that a garage did that to mine some time ago, I have experience to show that an oil grease mix is not too catastrophic. When originally used on spitfires, they would have been greased. I would try forcing the grease out over time by oiling more frequently than usual.

 

Busting a gut to make the next Penn Sevens

[Jonathan Ratty]

Thanks for the help.

 

As I understand it the reason not to use grease is that over time it hardens and compacts, losing its lubricating properties. As long as the mixture of both won't cause any problems I will just top up with oil. And label the guns more clearly in future...

 

Jonathan

[eric]

My experience was an upright failure

under braking with 15" yoko normal road tyre

 

No more consequences as it was on a safe circuit

not on the road

 

Don't play with your security

 

eric

[Bare]

Grease is better at compensating for minor wear in the Brass Bit.. Oil (as Said)doesn't Harden.

Either is FINE. Breakages are almost always due to the FORGED STEEL upright cracking/breaking it's threaded stub off.. either due to some manufaturing fault (extremely Rare) or more realistically, crash damage that incredibly, went unnoticed. Even the newest Cat 'ball Jointed' version uses the same upright.. so problems with breakages are still possible.. so don't gothinking that this is an inherent fault in the Trunnion style system.

Brass bit gets really sloppy ..years.. before it can 'fall off'.. one would have to be truly exceptionaly 'dimly aware' to miss that onna 7. 😬

[Sheds Moderator]

I used to run an old spitfire on grease and oil mixed, just chuck it in, it will all work. It really isn't critical, neglect is the killer. Spitfires originally recommended oil, not grease but most got grease at best, nothing at all more commonly. It's true that upright failure is the favourite means of catastrophic failure, very few trunnions actually popped out as a result of wear. I would suspect that lack of lubrication is unlikely to be a primary cause of uprights breaking though it can't help.

 

Regular lubing, once a month or so, would not go amiss. Just keep wiping the excess off and they will last a reasonable length of time. 20k replacements may be a bit excessive, justkeep an eye on them and replace as necessary.

[elie boone]

I have found that it is best to grease the trunnions every 6 months, for this i use a nippel where the bal is remouved ( just hold it againt a mill ) and a pipe connected to a oilcan with handpump this is the easy'est way to fill them up because the oil can go in the trunnion with little pressure.

[Casbar]

So Elie, are you greasing them or oiling them, as you mention both in your post Or are you greasing them with oil

[Jonathan Ratty]

Again, thanks to all for answering this.

 

As I was talking to James Whiting about something else, I asked him the same question. His reply backed up everything said here: just use oil in future and the grease will be flushed eventually. In the meantime, there's no problem with the combination.

 

Jonathan