Do you add oil to your balls ?

[kevsta]

Does anyone here bother to add oil to their ball bearings or do you just run them dry.

I ve been trialling some trinity light weight bearing oil and can t tell the difference compared to just pumping them with fast drying moving parts cleaner spray aka wd40.

Apart from collecting more dust… I m wondering if its really worth it. I guess the ball bearings would last longer with some form of lubricant.

Your thoughts ?

[betty.k]

i was yakking about this with jamie. he says that running your bb’s completely dry is the way to go. that means no oil at all, wd40 is oil. he claims to have increased top speed in his z by 10kph by cleaning out the bearings.:8ball:

[dgs73]

Jamie and I have nutted this one out too… dry bearings are alot faster, but the trade off is lifetime of the bearings… plus they do seize up every now and then (at least mine do!), but easy to fix. All my other cars run factory greased bearings

[kevsta]

Quote:

Jamie and I have nutted this one out too… dry bearings are alot faster, but the trade off is lifetime of the bearings… plus they do seize up every now and then (at least mine do!), but easy to fix. All my other cars run factory greased bearings

I cleaned out my factory greased bearings with pcb cleaner and they actually spin much better than from the factory if that makes sense.

So general consensus is to leave them dry…

Good Good.

🙂

[dgs73]

Kev; give em a quick hit with a Dremel, about 8000-9000rpm… i think you know what i mean:smiley2:

[peteWah]

Yeah, i think what he dose (this is a guess)
Is soak his bearings in kero or somthing of the like and then runs them till they are completely bone dry, This would help in the cleaning process i guess, Or im completely wrong

Jamie what is the process man….:smiley2::8ball::question:

[peteWah]

On a dremel like what dave said but i realy think they should soak first. Thats what i would do…
Unless jamie dose somthing different before he spins them out, Im only guessing :):smiley2::approve:

[dgs73]

I might as well put what I do then… its already half here… overnight soak in turps, clean out in prepsol/low grade thinners (not for long if thinners!!!), dry, dremel. Install. Spin. Go to the shops, buy beer. Return, still spinning. Questions??:D

Edited by – dgs73 on 17 August 2004 16:04:23

[merc-blue]

yeh i tryed tons of different bearings and jamies dry ones are the best the method he told me to use is:
put them in petrol
let them dry
put them in petrol
let them dry
etc etc
i did it 5 times each time i dryed them on a peice of glass casue there are no fibes for them to pick up

[peteWah]

Quote:

I might as well put what I do then… its already half here…

Dont be a dick about it…

[kevsta]

Quote:

I might as well put what I do then… its already half here… overnight soak in turps, clean out in prepsol/low grade thinners (not for long if thinners!!!), dry, dremel. Install. Spin. Go to the shops, buy beer. Return, still spinning. Questions??:D

Edited by – dgs73 on 17 August 2004 16:04:23

Wow.. thats a lot of work. I would do it too if it wasn’t so damn difficult in getting the bearings out from kyosho plastic wheels.

Hmmm… a dremel – Don’t have one of these expensive buggers. Might have to settle for a $20 rechargeable made in china one which has bugger all power but will probably do the job of spinning a bearing or commutator/armature.

[ph2t]

you guys have gotta stop playing with your balls so much……

[dgs73]

I was exagerating slightly when I said that they’ll spin for ten minutes… more like 2 or 3… still good though… I agree too Kev, not enjoying the task of removing bearings from plastic rims. Wont have to do that again as of this week though

[kevsta]

Quote:

Wont have to do that again as of this week though

Been ebay shopping have we ? Checked out those titanium coloured narrow alloy rims with tyres with the buy it now for $19.95 ?

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=34063&item=5915131596&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW

Be quick…

K.

[PandaBear]

Quote:

I’ve been trialling some trinity light weight bearing oil and can’t tell the difference compared to just pumping them with fast drying moving parts cleaner spray aka wd40.

WD40 leaves behind an oily trace, its not really “dry”.

Real dry lube is graphite dust. 🙂

Trinity Royal Oil is recommended for RC but not cheap ~$15.
Probably get same results from sewing machine oil ~$3 :p,
but that’s not dyed purple.

Many different ways of removing the factory grease from BBs:
1) soak for a week in thinners, shellite, acetone etc
2) ultrasonic cleaner with shellite
3) RPM Bearing Blaster & motorspray

Works faster if the BB’s shields are removed first.

However once you’ve washed out factory grease, you’ll have
to keep maintaining the bearings regularly – else they jam.
They also live a harder (=shorter) life.

What price, speed? :smiley16:

[Charlie Brown]

Quote:

you guys have gotta stop playing with your balls so much……

ROTFLMAO!

[jamiekulhanek]

These bearings have relatively little load put on them, and dry bearings last ages anyway. Bearings are only $10 a set so i see it as a cheap performance mod.

My process is:

-Put them in a container of petrol, and shake em for a few minutes, leve them for 30 minutes, give them another shake. Then dry them on paper towell.

-I repeat this about 3-5 times using FRESH petrol each time.

-I then thoroughly dry them by shaking them in paper towell, and leave them for an hour for th remaining petrol to evaporate.

-Finally, i spin them for 5 minutes on mini Z motor shafts, i refuse to use a dremel, because the vibrations from a dremel can destroy my tiny 0.5mm balls
:clown:. And i have done it before, the mini Z motors run very true with negligible vibration, and are much nicer to your bearings.

Then i chuck em in, and make sure they roll nicely (i.e. the rear axle rolls for almost 1 minute with a flick from your finger)

This mod can see a 10-15% gain in top speed, also, setting the gear mesh with paper shims can see a performance increase…..

[kevsta]

Thanks for sharing this very useful information that you can’t get from anywhere else on the web.

I like the thought of having the rear axle spin for more than a minute…or a wheel even…

Cheers,
K.

🙂

[z-beam]

speaking of removing bearings from kyosho plastic rims, whats the safest way to do it without destroying the bearings???

[dgs73]

I use a 4mm allen key or similar to push it out of the rim… not sure if I like whaat it might be doing to them though. All this will stop once my other alloys get here…

[kevsta]

To remove them, I use pointy tip pliers an pry from the sides where those two little slots are. Doing a bit from each side until it comes out…

For the bearings in the standard motor mount, I use the same as Dgs, allen key pushing the bearing from the other side.

Oh.. cleaned my bearings, and boy oh boy, do they keep spinning much better than new. It also solved by flying wheel nut problem, and the Z just keeps on rolling.

🙂

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