Best grease for garadge door rails..

[GotBonus]

Garage door is making an awful squeak, looks like the rails need a good greasing, the drive screw needs lubrication as well. What is the best type of grease to use in either case? Thanks

[Jeff Wisnia]

I always use Lubriplate, a white grease....And sparingly please...

Jeff

[PipeDown]

I use bicycle chain lubricant. It collects less dust than thick grease. I have a chain drive but it should also work on a worm gear. Do not mix grease types. You may want to clean the works first using a solvent soaked rag or a light oil-solvent mix like WD40. That is not sufficiant for a final lube though.

[Doug Miller]

You don't grease the rails -- ever. You grease the rollers, *inside* where the bearings are. Not on the outside.

Plain old axle grease from your nearest auto parts store works fine.

[Larry Jaques]

On Wed, 05 Jul 2006 18:37:35 -0400, with neither quill nor qualm, Jeff Wisnia quickly quoth:

AutoZone had spray lithium grease which is excellent stuff for this application. I used to use the Ford spray grease in door and window mechanisms back in my previous life as a Wrench. AZ has it on sale for a buck every once in a while, but it's cheap at $2.89 or something in between those sales. Grab some! It's great stuff and is easy to apply, especially in tight spots like the open bearings of garage door rollers and window channels. I just used some on the driver window of my '90 F-150 a couple weeks ago and it rolls like brand-new again.

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[Larry Jaques]

On Wed, 05 Jul 2006 22:56:31 GMT, with neither quill nor qualm, [e-mail] (Doug Miller) quickly quoth:

I disagree, Doug. Even well-lubed wheels can squeak on rails and I like a thin coating of grease on them, too. I spray the wheel bearings, lift the door to distribute it, then spray the tracks and move the door up and down a few times.

I'm also one of the brave few who have risked life and limb (yeah, right) to tension his torsion springs for the door. The last owner had put a wooden wall up on the door and removed the hardware. I found it and replaced it, then tensioned the springs. I'm alive and still have all ten digits. Can you imagine that? (IIRC, you were one of the folks saying "get a pro to do it" in the spring thread last month.)

Namaste.

-- Save the Endangered ROAD NARROWS! -|-

Ban SUVs today! -|- Full Service Websites

[Jeff Wisnia]

I'll have to disagree about occasional need for rail greasing too.

While I agree that in theory the rollers should only contact the concave part of the rails they roll on, hence there's no rubbing friction, but.....

Maybe it's just me, but I've never been able to balance out the springs and cables on the two single width doors (we've lived with for 21 years now) well enough so that there isn't an occasional shift to one side or the other while they're moving making for some rubbing friction between the sides of a roller and the vertical insides of the rails, with an attendant squeek.

Maybe it's a function of one side of our wooden garage doors absorbing more moisture than the other at certain times of the year and throwing the balance out of kilter, but it "do happen".

When a squeek sounds off I seek out the "shiny evidence" of rubbing on the affected rail and smear a fingerfull of lubriplate on that spot.

Works for me, YMMV,

Jeff

[Jimmie D]

is the weak man's imitation of strength."

I used to grease my rails too but no more. Found that they make roller made of nylon that never need lubing except for the bearings maybe. I have had them for 5 years now and they havent needed anything yet.

[Pop]

No. Grease collects dirt and will make a fair mess out of itself in about a year, and the dirt collected causes its own set of problems including dirt in bearings when it's pulled into the rollers.

And, with a light weight oil. I use WD-40 to clean it up, then oil I buy made for the purpose, at my local True Value.

Yes, if what you want is a mess.

I respectfully submit it's you. Correctly installed and adjusted doors and hardware will not allow a non-rolling part of the roller surface to contact the rail. You may have incorrect rollers. Yes, it's common for a door to want to wander to the sides a bit; and normal in the overall scheme. But it should not cause a squeak if everything's in good shape and the right parts.

Yes, it does happen, as I indicated above, as far as wanting to hug one side or the other of the track/s.

Wrong solution: The rubbing continues and apparently you don't touch it again until you notice the squeak again: Wrong thing to do. Something is wrong and needs attention. By the time there's a "shiny" spot there's already been a fair amount of material removed.

So far.

Nylon makes for quieter door movements. But the nylon ones I'm aware of specifically should NOT be oiled/greased in any way - the oil is bad for the nylon. Also, nylon tends to dry out in hot weather and begins to chip away pieces of itself. They're good but, IMO should be inspected now and then before a flat spot can develop on one of them.

Pop