Lube-Tips

Smoothing Out Bulk Grease

After scooping out grease from a bulk container, ensure the top surface of the remaining grease in the container is level. Do not leave the grease surface with pockets or cavities. This will cause bleeding of the base oil from the grease thickener into these zones. In order to use the grease in such a case, the separated oil would need to be worked back by agitation. This should only be attempted if there is no risk of dirt entering the bulk grease during agitation (from the container, tools or grease surface).

No-Mess Filter Removal

This technique can help you avoid a mess when changing your vehicle's oil and filter. Horizontally cut a recycled 2-liter plastic soda-pop bottle in two pieces, about halfway up. Slide either half over the loosened filter and spin the filter until it is unthreaded and drops off. Hold the cupped filter in position for a minute or two to catch any leakage from the filter housing before removing. This can eliminate most of the mess, even on a nearly horizontally mounted filter.

Slight Vacuum Solves Problem

Have you ever threaded in a drain plug not quite right or had the drain plug washer not seat properly but didn’t want to drain out all the new oil? For many small-sump machines (gearboxes, etc.), you can apply suction via a shop vac with a clean rag over the fill hole. This will create a vacuum, allowing you to momentarily remove the drain plug and reinsert a new one with hardly a drop lost.

Selecting the Right Piping

When retrofitting gearboxes for service and filtering, consider using stainless- steel piping instead of black iron piping. After a rather short period of time, the inside of the black piping begins crusting and flaking off into the gear oil, giving false testing results. This is more predominant in high humidity and frequent wash-down areas.