G11 lubing

[ChrisV]

I recently got an older G11. Have cleaned and relubed it.

For the needle and thrust bearings I used superlube. But then saw some terrible things about it leading to damage cause it just ain't up to the job. So have replaced with Mobil Grease-28.

But does anyone know about greasing the worm. Jet Lube- MP50 is recommended as it has high molybdenum content. But I can't find it anywhere in Australia. In the meantime I have used CRC brake and caliper grease.

Anyone know othersource or alternatives to the Jet Lube??

Thanks Chris

[gb44]

I recently did the job on my worms with a PTFE grease from SuperCheap called Nulon Xtreme performance L80.

Seems to be doing the job.

GlennB

[AdamJL]

Testar sell some grease that they use for mounts.
Can be used on the worm gear.

https://www.testar.com.au/products/grease-for-mount

What's wrong with Super Lube btw? I use it for threads and it's great.

[ChrisV]

Thanks for your responses. To answer Adam, some G11 users have seen wear on bearings which are under pressure, e.g. thrust and needle bearings, when using superlube. Superlube has Teflon/PTFE which keeps parts physically separated but isn't meant for high pressures situations.

Lubricants designed to work under pressure, such as MP-50 (used by Losmandy) with molybdenum as an additive, provides better protection. I've found an alternative, mobilgrease-28, for the bearings. So now just looking for an MP-50 equivalent for the worm. I saw the geoptik lubricant, wish they said what was in it!!

Maybe I'm being pedantic, in fact I know I am ...

[oska]

Don't stress it. Molly is for high load situations like gears and CVs etc. Without the high loads the benefit of molly is minimal. No amateur telescope could possibly put enough "pressure" into the grease, either in the bearings or the worm, that molly would be of any advantage. If you can turn the gear train by hand then we're many many orders of magnitude away from where molly comes into its own. Think about it, in industry where molly is used the loads are in the 10's and 100's of tons (actually GPa) not kilos. Sure the thrust bearing see what you might think is "high-ish" loads when clamped, but they're static loads. Even if you used a stilsen on the locking nut you still wouldn't damage the thrust bearings, but you might apply enough pressure to make the molly work :) Bearings in a mount are generally spec'd vastly under their operating tolerances. Personally I'd be dubious of the source making the claim that it was the grease, more likely neglect or contamination (spilled juice/coke?) IMHO. Ask a mechanical engineer, molly is used in these kinds of inappropriate contexts because the label has "Extreme" on it and that was the end of the consideration.
Molly wont hurt (good luck washing it out of clothes and stuff) but the loads are too low for it to be actually useful in any meaningful way.

[ChrisV]

Thanks Oska. That does make sense
But I'll still use the Mobil grease :)

[Peter Ward]

Seriously....these things spin at a glacial pace.

You are not running an F1 car.

Having serviced dozens of Losmandy mounts, I can say Nulon Xtreme performance L80 is an excellent choice ;)