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Lubricating 'plastic' gears?

Hi All,

I'm trying to find the answer to a 'should or shouldn't I lubricate 'plastic' gears' and if yes, with what?

To be more specific the gears are in the reduction gearbox on a

Reply to
T i m
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Yes, but only using the correct grease!

Some types of grease will weaken nylon gears causing them to break.

CPC.co.uk sell (Sold?) a special white grease for lubricating plastic gears.

sponix

Reply to
--s-p-o-n-i-x--

I recently bought some motor drive potentiometers with plastic reduction gearboxes and slip clutch. These seem to have some white lube on them too.

I happen to have some white lube which looks pretty identical. It's the grease I use to repack my bicycle wheel bearings (which are metal, not plastic though). It claims to be 100% synthetic, packed with micron sized Teflon particles, and guaranteed not to separate out. Don't know if it's really similar stuff though. You tend to use white grease on bicycle wheel bearings so you can easily see if it's becoming contaminated and needs changing.

Washing machine motors are Universal motors, and would run on DC. Actually, mine is driven using SCR's IIRC, so I presume it is running on DC as there aren't enough SCRs to drive it on full wave AC.

So what's the top road speed on the fast spin program? ;-)

Reply to
Andrew Gabriel

Well, that was my worry ..

Indeed .. I have heard of some plastic expanding under the wrong lube?

It seems that lots of this 'specialised' lube gets rolled into a more 'universial' solution these days ...

Cheers fella ..

T i m

Reply to
T i m

Several 'plastic' machine things I have taken to bits seem to have that sort of white lube in them .. like the plastic / gear bits in a video?

I assume a problem could be that although they *look* similar they could be very different chemically? ;-(

(I guessed you would be off a tricycle by now!)

It claims to be 100%

Good thought ..

Fair enough .. although wouldn't the brushes / windings be different (240V 12V?) ..?

Unassisted on the flat ..15 mph .. down hill .. how much bottle do you have!

All the best ..

T i m

Reply to
T i m

Spares are still available for the C5...you could always see if they sell an "official" grease:

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it's just they got one of the biggest

The whole C5 was assembled by Hoover in Merthyr Tydfil.

sponix

Reply to
--s-p-o-n-i-x--

fancy one with the "Evo" 24v conversion, 30mph in a C5 would be one helluva way to go...... :o)

Reply to
Steve Walker

Yes. Lithium silicone mix I think.

Some plastics are self lubing...nylon is I think, and possibly polycarbonate.

However the thought that the ginger pig would have moulded his gears from anything but the cheapest s**te he could get a quote on its laughable: So its best to assume they were made of recycled fan housings, like his famous loudspeakers 'acoustically contoured chamber' har har.

I think its more a question of the application rather than the material..

Reply to
The Natural Philosopher

Hi Nigel .. yep, there re quite a few folk selling spares now and quite a few bits / complete vehicles appear on eBay. I

When I was racing electric vehicles one member 'modded' a C5 with 2 motors and 4 batteries (so 48V) and was doing over 50 mph ... ;-(

Maybe when we are being charged £1.50 / mile to drive in London things like the C5 (or recumbants in general) may become the norm?

All the best ..

T i m

Reply to
T i m

And supported by their mobile engineers supposedly? It's a shame the C5 was 30 years too soon .. pretty clever (and inovative at the time) design / ergonomics and most will still run today with a new set of tyres, drive belt and battery ;-)

All the best ..

T i m

Reply to
T i m

I guessed it might include one or the other .. I wonder if there is any difference between white and black lithium grease (apart from the colour)?

Indeed. I believe this gearbox lasts longer with some lube (feedback from those who are still using C5's regularly).

Really? I thought most of the bits on the C5 were faily high spec (and why he lost a fortune on the project) .. chassis designed by Lotus, Europes biggest single piece plastic moulding for the body tub, electronics by Ferranti, charger by Selmer, battery by Crompton etc etc?

I'm sure 'reduction gearbox' would play a big part in the requirement (revs, load, temperature etc) but I also suspect the choice of lube would still be more subtle than if the gears were 'metal' (even if recycled carb bodies ) ?

All the best ..

T i m

Reply to
T i m

I have a new, unused C5 motor sitting in my garage if you (or anyone!) is interested.

Alan.

Reply to
Alan

Is it *just* the motor Alan or gearbox as well? I believe the motor is 'special' in the mountings for the gearbox (and therefore tricky to interface an alternative motor to the housing)?

Hiave you considered putting it on eBay?

If you like I could mention it on the C5 list (if you want to send me some details re price / location off list etc).

All the best ..

T i m

p.s. I have a couple of spare C5 motors myself as I was part of the team that cleared one of the Sinclair places when the project was over ;-)

Reply to
T i m

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