H2GURU, I had a thread here a year or two ago looking for a replacement for the Ariens "fluid" which, as you described above, looks like a mixture of gear oil and anti-seize. This is probably why Red Line Oil recommends their moly-laden "Shockproof" oils in the same application.
The thread should still be here ... somewhere. Either in this subsection or the gear oil subforum.
When I drained the factory fluid out (I had already drained the motor oil and gas, too) I had to tip the machine so far forward that it was almost upside down ... and spilled a fair amount of the lube on the ground.
What fluid I did collect looked like one of the thickest oils I had ever seen ... with a green tint and plenty of silver in it. Now that I think of it, I am not sure the silver wasn't break-in wear rather than heavy moly disulphide.
The thread should still be here ... somewhere. Either in this subsection or the gear oil subforum.
When I drained the factory fluid out (I had already drained the motor oil and gas, too) I had to tip the machine so far forward that it was almost upside down ... and spilled a fair amount of the lube on the ground.
What fluid I did collect looked like one of the thickest oils I had ever seen ... with a green tint and plenty of silver in it. Now that I think of it, I am not sure the silver wasn't break-in wear rather than heavy moly disulphide.