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Gloves.
Do not use latex gloves, they break easily. Use nitrile gloves instead, they are mechanically much more resistant.
Even better: Use nitrile gloves under ordinary work gloves. The ordinary gloves will protect the nitrile gloves from mechanically influences, the nitrile keeps away the oil.
Soap
Use industrial hand wash paste. Perfect to remove oil ...
10
If you don't like gloves, I recommend GOJO:
GOJO contains pumice, which is ground up volcanic rock. It also contains a natural degreaser. When you combine the two, you have a cleaner that can remove grease and dirt from every part of your hand, including nails and cuticles. I recommend combining it with a nail brush:
10
True for some axles. Given the different bearing designs between the inner and out CV joint. The CV joints will include the required grease when purchased. The color depends more on the manufacturer than anything. There are aftermarket (read: Valvoline, Castrol, etc) greases that can be used in the inner and outer cv joint.
6
tl dr: You've hurt nothing by putting more than a little bit of grease in the boot ... don't worry about it.
Dielectric grease serves two purposes:
Prevent electrical leakage
Keep the boot from sticking to the porcelain of the spark plug
According to Wikipedia:
Dielectric grease is electrically insulating and does not break down when high voltage is ...
6
Brakes become hot. Very hot. 300°C (600°F) and more is easily achieved at the disks after a hard braking from high speed.
Most greases become quite thin at a higher temperature, and start to creep away from where they previously have been applied to. And the last thing you want is a grease which creeps onto the surface of the braking pad.
Further more, the ...
6
Use the lithium or silicone grease!
Copper grease is primarily used to prevent the seizing of parts which become extremely hot, like the exhaust system. But it is not a lubricant in first place. The grease bounds the copper powder, but isn't made for lubrication, an copper powder in a moving bearing can't be good, even though copper is a rather soft metal. ...
6
Dielectric grease does not conduct electricity. Proper application is important! Do NOT get grease between the terminals! This will inhibit good connection and shorten battery life. Vaseline was used for many decades, but with its own downsides. Vaseline is petroleum based, and when it gets hot it likes to run. This can cause the grease to penetrate between ...
5
It depends.
What you are referring to is dielectric grease. It doesn't conduct electricity so it is safe to use on electrical connectors.
Modern vehicle assembly lines don't grease bulbs because the rubber seals are sufficient at keeping moisture out, the electrical connection can be made more reliably.
Having said that, if the rubber isn't sealing ...
5
No, you don't "really need" it. However, the purpose of the grease is to keep out moisture that can degrade the connection and the bulb's performance. So if you see any signs of corrosion when you remove the old bulb, I would say that it would be a very good idea to clean the socket well and use some grease.
In my, limited, experience the bulbs that tend to ...
5
My grandad run a automotive and truck repair shop for 50years, he told me when I was a kid to use Vaseline on my hands before work starts (this was before all the modern cleaners of today).
Thin layer covering the whole hand and at the end of day all the oil/grease washes away so much easier.
My brother has also used it in his shop.
I my self like mechanics ...
5
It looks as though the boot has split and is spewing grease all over the place. If there isn't a lot of dirt let into the boot, you should be able to just replace the boot (yes, this is a chore, but a heck of a lot cheaper than replacing the half-shaft). When you replace the boot, you'll want to put some grease back into it to supplement what was lost. If ...
4
Too many either overthink the problem at hand, or have a perverse tendency to distrust "the man," i.e. whoever is determining the current paradigm. Hence, any variety of satisfactory answers are invariably met with alternative/contrarian advise overruling the current best practice. Antiseize compounds are designed for use between contact surfaces during ...
4
I've never considered fingerprints to be a massive problem in a "I drive a family wagon to the shops" context but if this is on your Porsche just before tomorrow's track day you might feel differently. That many rotors come with a film of oil to prevent corrosion is slightly more significant, and that should be thoroughly cleaned off.
Safety purists will ...
3
A shock absorber is supposed to be dry on the outside, leaking fluid (I suppose you mean that by grease?) is a sign of damage. The more hydraulic fluid a shock absorber looses the worse is it's capacity to dampen impulses.
I cannot indicate by what amount of leaking fluid a shock absorber is considered to be exhausted. Since the shock absorber is a highly ...
3
besides the fact that the grease will be messy and get all over everything, the only reason I have seen is that sometimes grease or anti-seize can interfere with a ground connection if there isn't a good ground wire to the trailer lights.
3
Basically the answer is "no". You should leave both the ring gear on the flywheel (standard shift tranny) or flexplate (automatic tranny) and the gear on the Bendix dry. As @elmerfud stated, as long as the starter is shimmed to spec for its engagement, you'll have no issues with it. Both the ring gear and the Bendix gear are built to take the punishment.
...
3
A good research clue would be "OSPAR compliant stern tube lubricant"
I found also that Klüber has a good range for marine products.
2
More than likely the problem is a leaky valve cover gasket. It's just something which happens over time. The old one becomes hard and cracks, thus oil starts dripping. Over time, this collects on the different parts with whatever amount of dirt is available and, voila! You have gunk all over the place.
First thing to do is thoroughly clean the affected area ...
2
Very low tech solution - I had a bicycle mirror with a loose ball and socket joint. Pulled the ball out, put it in a plastic-wrap baggie, and pushed it back in. Trimmed off excess baggie... Mirror is as tight as brand new.
2
Apply a thin layer of solder/alloy weld to either the ball or socket to increase/decrease the relative diameter of the joint contact area and in effect create (closer to) the correct tolerances for mirror rigidity while retaining ability of adjustment movement.
2
If the bearing didn't come with grease, or a recommendation for grease, I'd be inclined to use high temperature wheel bearing grease.
2
I use a product called Invisible Glove, which protects your skin from getting grease-stained in the first place.
You put it on your hands before you start the messy job. It goes on like hand cream; you spread it over your skin, massage it into the crevices and folds in your knuckles, and work it into your cuticles and under your nails. Apply it all the way ...
2
It depends on the bearings, if they have rubber seals on each side (ie sealed for life...) then no, but if they are "open" then you need to have grease there.
2
You should clean the rotors with brake cleaner.
If it was just normal skin oils you wouldn't have a problem, but your hands were contaminated with all manner of lubricants which are designed to stay put and not break down in the presence of heat and moisture. These could definitely degrade your braking performance, so clean the rotor thoroughly.
2
I depends on the specific car. But in some cases there are multiple grease fittings that should be greased periodically. In addition to your tie rod ends there are upper and lower ball joints, wheel bearings, u-joints, driveshaft slip joint, to name a few.
In recent years auto manufacturers have started leaving out the grease fittings and calling the parts ...
1
No need to repeat @Myself's recommendations.
I will add that the toughest grime to get rid of will be the crud that finds its way under your fingernails. One way to get rid of most of the crud there is to trim your fingernails after the job. Just try to avoid wrenching thereafter :)
1
So I cant say for sure I'm no expert and I actually made this "mistake" already I thought they were the same when I did my breaks last. Well that was about a year ago and my wheel bearing went bad and I had to take the breaks off to replace it. Well when I had it off I decided to check my guide pins and they still were sliding smooth, so I'm not sure about ...
1
It is unlikely you tightened them to the point of causing some damage. The paperwork that comes with the parts should have a reference to torque specs. An on line reference I found gives a value of 37ftlbs. As far as grease I use the chassis grease from the auto parts store. I generally give them a shot of grease prior to installation. I do this mostly to ...
1
Packing the free space in the hub will do very little, if any good. In normal operation the grease doesn't flow, so the extra grease never gets anywhere near the bearings. The grease you need and want is the grease that "packs" the bearing – filling the spaces around the rollers. The easy way to get this in is with a packing tool, there are several varieties....
1
I would not recommend packing either the cap or the space between the bearings. The external cap is only a dust cap and is not meant to hold back grease, just keep the dust out. The story is very similar with the inside seal. The seal is just to keep the dust out. If too much grease is put in, it may get displaced and get past the seals making a mess all ...
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