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Steering bushing redo.

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I replaced the bushing, had to re grease the n xt weekend (not enough grease), done it that next weekend (weekend before last) and it done great, then last weekend it's hard steering, this weekend I got it apart to figure out why. 

 

Does grease get dry if open on a shelf? I used john deere grease for our loaders. Slathered the crap out of it. Here are photos. My question is there a better grease that will stay sticky but fluid when compressed by the cap? IDC how much it is for good grease. I'm confused as to why after a week it got hard to turn. 

 

 

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Silicone grease is all you need.

Spray it down and clean it well with silicone lube and then use silicone grease.

A few small washers to give it bit more clearance can loosen up the tightness but don't overdo it.

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@F250 guy I've never had grease dry completely out ... I've seen a some types sepperate but johndeere grease should be fine, i use bel-ray myself ... and mystic ... both are great. did the steering get easy after you took the bushing back out ? i would raise the front end off the ground . and re check it with the bushing... the bottom steering shaft bearing might also be an issue. 

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4 minutes ago, oh400ex said:

Silicone grease is all you need.

Spray it down and clean it well with silicone lube and then use silicone grease.

A few small washers to give it bit more clearance can loosen up the tightness but don't overdo it.

Yea but it was just sitting a week after I redid it. I'd rather not do washers and not have enough thread on the bolts. 

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3 minutes ago, _Wilson_™ said:

@F250 guy I've never had grease dry completely out ... I've seen a some types sepperate but johndeere grease should be fine, i use bel-ray myself ... and mystic ... both are great. did the steering get easy after you took the bushing back out ? i would raise the front end off the ground . and re check it with the bushing... the bottom steering shaft bearing might also be an issue. 

Ya mean turn it with the bushing out, no I didn't. Thanks for the tip on the lower bearing. I'll try the silicone grease first next weekend.

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1 minute ago, F250 guy said:

Yea but it was just sitting a week after I redid it. I'd rather not do washers and not have enough thread on the bolts. 

 

Skip the washers. I don't use them either but some who like easier steering prefer it.

Silicone grease is the big change. It won't dry and will condition the rubber if anything lol

 

The stuff you were using (if it was JD original) was polyurea which is a different beast entirely.

 

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1 minute ago, oh400ex said:

 

Skip the washers. I don't use them either but some who like easier steering prefer it.

Silicone grease is the big change. It won't dry and will condition the rubber if anything lol

 

The stuff you were using (if it was JD original) was polyurea which is a different beast entirely.

 

It's all we had but I'll get some silicone spray next week and grease it next weekend.  Guess what I was asking is what type is best, but any silicone grease will work? 

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4 minutes ago, F250 guy said:

It's all we had but I'll get some silicone spray next week and grease it next weekend.  Guess what I was asking is what type is best, but any silicone grease will work? 

 

I hear ya lol 

Been down that road many times as we are in a rural area and a trip to town takes up half a day.

 

I used these two products last time but in general... yes any silicone grease will do.

 

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Edited by oh400ex
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4 minutes ago, F250 guy said:

Ya mean turn it with the bushing out, no I didn't. Thanks for the tip on the lower bearing. I'll try the silicone grease first next weekend.

 

yes, with out the upper bushing, and your welcome. :-)

 

your welcome, and that upper  clamp is not suppose have spacers.... just get some bel-ray grease ... it's water proof.. i use on all open lube points open to weather ... that looks to be a nice 300... don't rig it, do it right. (by the book!) and torq those upper bolts to 24 foot lbs .... my gut is telling me it's the lower bearing ... of maybe even even the upper, and lower ball joints ... all of these can add to hard steering if dryed out some ... 

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Very wierd. Never heard of that. I always just used what I had in hand. Red wheel bearing grease. But light coat. Nothing crazy..

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we've been over this a million times, grease from wally world ( super tech ) is fine, grease the outside of the rubber bushing, as well as the inside of the rubber bushing, then grease the shaft where it rides, THEN MAKE SURE THE LOWER STEERING BEARING IS CLEAN/GREASED ?!. 

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15 minutes ago, shadetree said:

we've been over this a million times, grease from wally world ( super tech ) is fine, grease the outside of the rubber bushing, as well as the inside of the rubber bushing, then grease the shaft where it rides, THEN MAKE SURE THE LOWER STEERING BEARING IS CLEAN/GREASED ?!. 

 

It is fine. You are right. Totally on about greasing everywhere in my experience as well... tried it both ways over the years.

 

The silicone grease is something you might be sleeping on man. It's great on rubber and you probably already have some at your house if you have some "faucet grease"

 

Give it a try sometime vs the regular grease and see what you think.

If you have already I'm curious why you still go regular... price to performance? I think there is an argument to be made there.

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Silicone grease is slippery and does not dry out, but it has no high pressure film strength, which is an engineered-in requirement for it to be considered for a lubricant in this, or any other usage case where moving parts are under pressure. Any good EP grease will serve ya better. If you expect the lube to go long term in all temperatures try using a synthetic NLGI #2 EP or wheel bearing grease, as ester based compounds do not degrade or separate either.

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F250, grease both the inside and the outside diameters of the bushing and lightly grease the steering shaft as shadetree recommended. Then tighten the two strap bolts a little bit at a time... alternating from one bolt to the other until both are equally and evenly drawn down tight. Turn the handlebar back and forth as you alternate from one bolt to the other to minimize bunching. Doing it this way helps to insure that the bushing does not bunch up under the strap on one side while you are tightening the bolts.

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20 minutes ago, retro said:

Silicone grease is slippery and does not dry out, but it has no high pressure film strength, which is an engineered-in requirement for it to be considered for a lubricant in this, or any other usage case where moving parts are under pressure. Any good EP grease will serve ya better. If you expect the lube to go long term in all temperatures try using a synthetic NLGI #2 EP or wheel bearing grease, as ester based compounds do not degrade or separate either.

 

Amazing explanation. Thank you for that!

Any idea why I would have a better experience with the silicone?

Granted if properly lubed with synthetic grease as you described this is a moot point likely either way... but why do you think that my Red-n-Tacky didn't perform as well as sink grease under the same conditions? A similar tightening to what was described in the OP happened with the grease gun stuff when the silicone has no issues (for me) 

I wonder why...

 

I think the biggest takeaway is that synthetic grease from a tube will work just fine for most folks.

Edited by oh400ex
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1 minute ago, retro said:

F250, grease both the inside and the outside diameters of the bushing and lightly grease the steering shaft as shadetree recommended. Then tighten the two strap bolts a little bit at a time... alternating from one bolt to the other until both are equally and evenly drawn down tight. Turn the handlebar back and forth as you alternate from one bolt to the other to minimize bunching. Doing it this way helps to insure that the bushing does not bunch up under the strap on one side while you are tightening the bolts.

That's what I'll do. 😁

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4 minutes ago, oh400ex said:

but why do you think that my Red-n-Tacky didn't perform as well as sink grease under the same conditions?

 

I don't have answers for "why" questions. 🙂

I've never tried Red-n-Tacky. Maybe its a poor product? Dunno...

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2 minutes ago, retro said:

I don't have answers for "why" questions. 🙂

I've never tried Red-n-Tacky. Maybe its a poor product? Dunno...

 

Hey no worries. You might sometimes have answers to a why question... I think you hit the nail on the head with my Wiseco experience.

 

I have enough 300s and parts to experiment a little and it works better for me.

For the record, I have used sink grease on bushings that are in service 5+ years later with no re-greasing and feel great.

 

Red-n-Tacky has been a rock solid product in other applications and is what I have in the "good grease" gun.

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I have been service manager for equipment companies , had many salesman come thru the office trying to sell products , one comes to mind with this thread , this salesman  had demonstrations set up with home made testing devices for grease  , one test was interesting , it was a cam with 6 rocker arms on it , the rockers had knobs on top to adjust the pressure , he applied different grease on each lobe , turned on the electric motor and started cranking down on the rockers , well some  started smoking and squeaking , one he didn't put grease , he applied just a dab of powdered moly , and one was grease made with moly, of course the two with moly were amazing , remember him saying the powdered moly gets into the microscopic pours of the metal and last , any ways it was very expensive grease and we didn't go for it ---- but interesting was he told me that moly comes from just a very few places in the world , one a place in Colorada named Moly Mountain , which is privately owned and the guy that mines it number one buyer is the US Government -----Red and Tacky by Lucas is good stuff 

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12 hours ago, shadetree said:

we've been over this a million times, grease from wally world ( super tech ) is fine, grease the outside of the rubber bushing, as well as the inside of the rubber bushing, then grease the shaft where it rides, THEN MAKE SURE THE LOWER STEERING BEARING IS CLEAN/GREASED ?!. 

 

there those caps are again... lol ... i can't count on my fingers and toes how many times this simple fix has been overly complecated ... lol! 

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Was it the grease used or the reassembly that caused the problem?
 

seriously, i went to buy some good moly grease and a little disappointed that I couldn’t find it at the Honda shop—they used to sell it. Anyway I’ll do some more research and prolly end up at the John Deere shop.


like Wilson i buy BelRay products cuz that’s what all the race guys used

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I reviewed the service manual for the project I’m working on—grease types. 
what a pain trying to find out whether a grease is lithium based, percent moly, polyurea—I’m the guy that needs a little more information.

 

The owner is a farmer and knows his grease; so I’m going to use the grease types specified in the manual and since John Deere is real specific about formulation, making selections from their grease makes it easy and people there usually know their stuff

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On 9/11/2020 at 9:22 PM, shadetree said:

we've been over this a million times, grease from wally world ( super tech ) is fine, grease the outside of the rubber bushing, as well as the inside of the rubber bushing, then grease the shaft where it rides, THEN MAKE SURE THE LOWER STEERING BEARING IS CLEAN/GREASED ?!. 

 

On 9/11/2020 at 9:41 PM, oh400ex said:

It is fine. You are right. Totally on about greasing everywhere in my experience as well... tried it both ways over the years.

 

The silicone grease is something you might be sleeping on man. It's great on rubber and you probably already have some at your house if you have some "faucet grease"

 

Give it a try sometime vs the regular grease and see what you think.

 

I still stand behind the sink grease but I think the takeaway is anything decent and well-applied will work. WM's Supertech is made in same factory as the expensive stuff and is better than average. Honda does have a marine grease product if you would like to go that route.

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Edit: Every service manual I have read just says "Grease" and does not specify type

Edited by oh400ex

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Here’s the page from my 08 Foreman it’s pretty specific. There are flags in the illustrations showing exactly what compound to use. Very helpful 

 

what I appreciate most is — there’s no single grease you can buy that will work on suspension, brakes, bearings, ES and EPS systems. 

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Edited by Goober
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