Possible Grease Incompatibility Issue?

[FZR_Fanatic]

Hello, everyone.

I've been lurking around here for a while now, trying to absorb all of the wonderful knowledge this forum has to offer, and now finally have something important enough to post.

I think I may have made a mistake, and am hoping you can tell me how bad it is...

I put a new rear tire on my motorcycle this weekend, and while doing so, decided to put a fresh coat of grease on the axle. The Chilton's manual I have said to use Never-Seize on the axle, but the factory manual just says to use a Lithium Soap based grease on the bearings and spacers, and doesn't mention the axle at all.

I was hesitant to use the Never-Seize, so I used a tube of Chevron SRI Grease I found at work, and smeared a little on the axle before installing. I knew I should have checked the forum beforehand, but was in a hurry to get the tire installed so I could take advantage of the nice weather...

Now that I'm finally doing my homework, I see that the Chevron SRI Grease is Polyurea based, and according to some charts I found here on BITOG, it is incompatible with Lithium based grease.

How will this react with any residual grease inside the wheel hub? I believe that the wheel bearings are sealed, and the axle grease is simply for ease of removal later, but will the axle grease contaminate the bearings?

Should I pull it back apart and use some degreaser to clean it up, or should I leave it as is? I'm also concerned that if I use degreaser to clean the inside of the wheel hub, it might get into the sealed bearings, and possibly thin out the bearing grease too.

I really don't want to have to install new wheel bearings, but certainly don't want to have something fail while out in the middle of nowhere. What would you experts recommend?

Normally I check this forum thoroughly before doing anything lubricant related, but this time my impatience got the better of me... This is one mistake I don't intend to repeat anytime soon!

 

[bruce381]

if the grease "melts" or gets liquid and runs out makeing a "wet" spot then you will have to re grease if it stays in do not worry

 

[FZR_Fanatic]

Bruce,

I forgot to thank you for the reply.

I'm basically waiting it out for the moment, but worst case scenario is having to replace the rear wheel bearings.

I will be calling Chevron tomorrow to see what their take is on the incompatibility issue.

 

[tom slick]

Chevron will ask if you know the brand of residual grease to check it against their list known compatible greases.
I called them once specifically asking questions about SRI.

for what you used it for it should be fine although the anti-sieze would be a better choice. SRI is specifically for high speed bearings and electric motors. it has a tendency to dry out when exposed to air.

 

[FZR_Fanatic]

You are right about Chevron asking about the residual grease. Unfortunately, I do not know what type of grease was in there previously. The service manual only calls out a "Lithium soap based grease".

Considering that the axle grease is only to prevent corrosion, and to aid in the future removal of the axle, I decided to run with it and see what happens. As far as I can tell the bearings are sealed, so the possibility of the SRI grease contaminating the bearings is probably less than the chance of ruining the bearings trying to degrease and clean everything.

The gentlemen in Tech Support that I spoke to did say that there are a few lithium greases that are compatible with the SRI grease, and the only good indicator of incompatibility would be exactly what bruce381 said to watch out for; separation and liquefying of the grease.

I'm still rather upset at myself. I'm normally very thorough in doing my research before hand, but had completely forgot to look into what types of grease we had available in the shop. It was a toss-up between the SRI and a Falk coupling grease, so I chose the more normal looking grease...

On the bright side, I am now well read on how to replace the rear wheel bearing in my motorcycle, if and when the time comes.

 

[tom slick]

I wouldn't worry about any incompatibility, it is not going to get in to the sealed wheel bearings.

I smear bel-ray waterproof on everything on my bike. no issues and a tub is only $5.