Sail drive grease

I use waterproof calcium grease in every part of my folders and it seems to be pretty long-lasting even on the exposed folding gears. Having said that, even when I used to use white marine grease, it always seemed to stay on the splines pretty well.

Richard
 
RichardS said:
Calcium waterproof greases?

Now where did I read that?

;)

Richard
Click to expand...

Ramonol Advanced grease , as you can see from the link is calcium sulfonate based. Ramonol white grease, which is described as "very water resistant" on the other hand is a lithium based grease .
I dont know what type the VP grease is but it is what VP recommend

Why are you specifically suggesting a calcium based grease ?
 
RichardS said:
I use waterproof calcium grease in every part of my folders and it seems to be pretty long-lasting even on the exposed folding gears. Having said that, even when I used to use white marine grease, it always seemed to stay on the splines pretty well.

Richard
Click to expand...

VicS said:
Ramonol Advanced grease , as you can see from the link is calcium sulfonate based. Ramonol white grease, which is described as "very water resistant" on the other hand is a lithium based grease .
I dont know what type the VP grease is but it is what VP recommend

Why are you specifically suggesting a calcium based grease ?
Click to expand...

Same reason you are, I imagine? :confused:

See post #2.

Richard
 
Last edited:
RichardS said:
Same reason you are, I imagine? :confused:

See post #2.

Richard
Click to expand...

My suggestion to use Ramonol Advanced Grease was based on what the technical data sheets for the range of Ramonol greases say.

I know you wont have read the TDSs and was wondering why you make the general recommendation to use a calcium based grease. I was hoping for a technical/ scientific explanation.
 
VicS said:
My suggestion to use Ramonol Advanced Grease was based on what the technical data sheets for the range of Ramonol greases say.

I know you wont have read the TDSs and was wondering why you make the general recommendation to use a calcium based grease. I was hoping for a technical/ scientific explanation.
Click to expand...

Ah ... OK. I'm not a "grease" expert but of the two main families of general purpose greases, lithium-based and calcium-based, calcium-based has the better water resistance characteristics so would seem to be the obvious choice for underwater applications.

In fact, I believe that modern calcium-based multi-purpose greases are better than the more traditional lithium-based greases in every respect that is relevant to such greases. However, they have traditionally been more expensive that lithium greases although the difference now is less significant. I may well perhaps switch to using calcium grease in all my multi-purpose applications once my current supply of lithium grease runs out.

Of course, specialised greases like moly disulphide are still needed for high friction/high stress applications where their anti-friction properties exceed lithium or calcium multi-purpose grease. I would therefore assume that Volvo may recommend such a specialised grease for folding props because of the stresses involved.

However, I cannot see that significant any frictional stresses would be incurred in the splines, which was the question asked by the OP, and therefore a much cheaper multi-purpose grease would be fine for such an application and, as it's underwater, a calcium grease would seem to be ideal.

Richard
 
Mine is greased every spring but there's never any left at haul-out, yet the prop is still working. It is obviously a good thing to grease it in the long run but it doesn't seem to be critical in the short term (providing the boat is in regular use), at least in my area.
 
RichardS said:
Ah ... OK. I'm not a "grease" expert but of the two main families of general purpose greases, lithium-based and calcium-based, calcium-based has the better water resistance characteristics so would seem to be the obvious choice for underwater applications.

In fact, I believe that modern calcium-based multi-purpose greases are better than the more traditional lithium-based greases in every respect that is relevant to such greases. However, they have traditionally been more expensive that lithium greases although the difference now is less significant. I may well perhaps switch to using calcium grease in all my multi-purpose applications once my current supply of lithium grease runs out.

Of course, specialised greases like moly disulphide are still needed for high friction/high stress applications where their anti-friction properties exceed lithium or calcium multi-purpose grease. I would therefore assume that Volvo may recommend such a specialised grease for folding props because of the stresses involved.

However, I cannot see that significant any frictional stresses would be incurred in the splines, which was the question asked by the OP, and therefore a much cheaper multi-purpose grease would be fine for such an application and, as it's underwater, a calcium grease would seem to be ideal.

Richard
Click to expand...

Thanks . That supports what I understand about the uses of these greases
 
I got a tub of anti barnacle grease from clares in Liverpool to trial, it works a treat on my folders.
 
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