Worm Gear Winch

[maineSS]

I recently rebuilt the winch on my '49 Power Wagon, and would like to find a modern oil suitable for PTO-driven worm gear winch with a steel worm and bronze bull gear.

The original lube spec was 90 wt gear oil, which was likely driven by availablity to the average user rather than suitability for worm gear use. I'll have to break the gearset in, then decide on an oil for long term use.

What came out was a mixture of water and gear oil, the entire gearset and bearings were junk. Since the worm retails for $900, and the bull gear for $450-500, I'd like to start off right, especially with the break-in oil. Any suggestions?

 

[tom slick]

I'd look at an industrial gearbox oil such as Mobil SHC

 

[maineSS]

From what I've read so far, Worm gears are a very specialized case, due to the large amount of sliding across the surface of the worm, and the frequent combination of steel and brass/bonze gearing. I another problem- exposure to varying outdoor temps, subzero during the winter to ~100 deg summer. A challenging lube problem, even for today's oils.

 

[John-r]

Stay away from any GL-5 lubes, they don't play well with brass.

 

[maineSS]

Apparently Lubriplate makes a synthetic Worm Gear oil, haven't got specs on it yet...

 

[maineSS]

Here's the specs on the Lubriplate synthetic worm gear oil- anyone have experience with it- good or bad? http://www.lubriplate.com/PDFs/6_4C-Synthetic-Worm-Gear.pdf (you'll have to Google this, doesn't come up as a hyperlink).