Wheel Oil/Grease

Evening,

Just a quick question, the wheel hubs have Oil Tubes fitted, but what oil should be in them, or are they actually grease tubes and you fill the cap and screw down to feed the grease?

Oil or grease and what type, please?

Cheers.

Richard.

I tend to grease mine, dunno if thats right or wrong, but had the wheels off at winter and regreased everything and all seemed fine. I've seen some folks change the tubes for nipples but its not really in keeping but does make it quicker to grease up.

Edit: better add that I wasnt the builder of mine so dont know for sure if grease is the best but they only go round slowly so I dont see why not.

I ran my 4" Burrell on oil for a couple of years & the oil just ran straight out all over the spokes. Also surprising amount of wear occurred. I then cut the tubes in half, rethreaded the ends & fitted grease nipples. Bought a grease gun nozzle that slides on sideways from ebay as getting a straight push was tricky. Now I just pump them full of grease at the beginning of the rally season & no mess & no further wear.

I concur with Steve re: grease.  It is possible to modify the supplied oil tubes and caps with a hidden nipple:





Tim

I also ran my 4" Burrell on oil for a couple of years, the oil making a mess on the engine. I made some “Stauffer grease pots” for the wheels, the original on the left is 55 mm in diameter. Will make some pictures of the fitted ones in the wheel tomorrow. I use PTFE grease, also in the other oilers.

As promised yesterday

Evening,

Thank you for the replies, I do like the look of the Stauffer Grease Pot, but I wished I had asked this question before I assembled the tubes into the hubs and painted them. I reckon I can still retro fit grease nipples though, or I might adapt a cap with a nipple fitted and just swap them over.

Anyway I now know that I should grease those nipples.

I will get around to posting some photos but so far I have completed the front end and all I have to do is varnish the front wheels. The back wheels arrived during the last couple of weeks and I also have assembled part one of the tender.

Good tip though, don't paint parts on the third floor or come to think of it expect to paint anything like the back wheels on the third floor. Thank goodness I don't have a cellar. Plus side is I am end of terrace and have a side entrance and car port so that is where the engine will go once the boiler arrives. I did build a dinghy in the Dinning Room so anything is possible.

Cheers.

Richard.

I know this is an old topic but I have so many questions I need to ask.

Just collected Kit 1, front wheels, after a visit to STW. I like the idea of grease more than oil as ultimately less mess I would think.

So what size grease nipples were used? Is it just a case of tapping out the inside of the oil supply tubes or do they need opening up with a tapping size drill? And then what size/type is are the thread taps?

Does the brass cap fit nicely over the grease nipple, or does that need modifying at all? PTFE, or Locktite, or dry?

TIA

John

Because the tube on the front wheels is so narrow I just threaded the cap and put a grease nipple on that. I used the smallest one I could find that went straight on the top. I also shortened the shaft by 50% as I didn't want it to snap off when using the grease gun. Grease is much better than oil as there has been zero wear since fitting them and no mess.

If it helps mines still got the standard oil caps but I just jack up, pop the hub cap off, pull the pin and washer off slide off the wheel, check it, blob on a bit of new grease and pop it all back together. OK might take 5mins per wheel compared to a splurge with a grease gun but it does give me a chance to check the wear. To date after 5yrs of only doing this once a year no ill effects or wear.
No modifications or anything
OK the Agri doesnt do moonscape miles but shes out at about 10 rallies a year plus around similar private runs.

LiveSteam wrote:If it helps mines still got the standard oil caps but I just jack up, pop the hub cap off, pull the pin and washer off slide off the wheel, check it, blob on a bit of new grease and pop it all back together. OK might take 5mins per wheel compared to a splurge with a grease gun but it does give me a chance to check the wear..

Thanks LiveSteam, that sounds an ideal solution as opposed to modding stuff I've never touched before.

What grease do you you use so I can get something in advance of an axle turning up? Just for prepping!

I just smear a bit of regular wheel bearing grease on them, dont let me stop you modding though

As I said I dont do moonscape miles on my agri, I suspect if it was a road loco going faster, being heavier and likely to do more miles then a grease nipple would be the way to go with a regular squirt from a gun, but for a low speed Agri I've not found any issues to date.

Dont be tempted to grease things like the gears though, as they will attract grit and it will turn into a rather nice grinding paste, which you really dont want, so just use oil on them.

For what its worth I use Morris Universal Steam oil on everything including in the Mech oiler for the cylinder. Others I know use two oils, steam and bearing, but I've not had any problems using the single universal stuff and it saves having two oil cans Not that you'll be needing any for quite a while yet

I thought long and hard on this and what I have done is make adaptors so when I lub up all I do is unscrew the oil cap then screw on the adapter grease the bearing unscrew the adaptor and put the oil cap back on
No mods required and I can use oil or grease

Hi Mark, any photos of your adapters? Been thinking about this idea on the build I just started.

Thanks
Tim