cleaning grease from hubs

Bob Moseley (RIP) · #1 08-02-11, 11:57

Hi Andrew - your first post said hubs not road wheels so I took that to mean the rear hubs holding the sprockets. The amount of immersion time that the wheels would be in the petrol would not effect the rubber. I re-rubber the road wheels and have to use a flame torch to remove the old rubber. The rubber is also adhered to a substance called ebonite that forms the bond between the rubber and the metal of the rims. This is all explained in my thread on wheel re-rubbering. If you are still worried about the petrol/rubber thing, sit the wheels on top of a smaller container holding petrol, or as Lynn suggests, kerosine, and still use a stiff brush to wash the grease away with your choice of the two solvents.

Hey Lynn - I agree kero is a good solvent but kero to petrol is like diet beer to real beer or decafe coffee to real coffee. Live a little dangerously.

Bob

andrew honychurch · #2 08-02-11, 12:32

well guys thanks for all the advice. I have doneit now. Just hit the job hard this morning, scooped out all the grease, washed with kerosene and then sprayed water soluble solvent and washed off with the jet wash. Filfthy job but a great day to do it as its really warm here and there is a good sun to help dry them out. Should be ready for the blaster now. Now i have got to get myself clean! cheers Andrew

Phil Waterman · #3 08-02-11, 13:35

Hi All

Andrew is correct with kero is a good combination, again warmth is key to making it work at its best. In the summer if I'm cleaning parts like this I put them out in the sun to warm up. The Gunk/Kero seems to work better once it and the grease are above 70F. In the winter I have a parts warm shelf that is about 5' from the hot air discharge for the furnace I put the parts to be cleaned on the self until they are warm. Then I use the Gunk/kero and it seems to clean work much better.

I was kidding about using gasoline to clean parts, your correct it is far to flammable and once mixed with grease and grime to hard to get rid of.

Cheers Phil

clarkray · #4 08-02-11, 13:51

Hi Andrew,my sand blaster had an easy solution.He got large washers to cover the bore and seal and ran a bolt thru and tighten it so no sand would get into it.

andrew honychurch · #5 08-02-11, 14:14

it did think of that, but I wanted to clean out the races and put new seals in anyway. There seemed a lot of grease on the wheels themselves so new seals would be an advantage I think.

Hanno Spoelstra · #6 08-02-11, 15:08

Quote:

Originally Posted by clarkray

He got large washers to cover the bore and seal and ran a bolt thru and tighten it so no sand would get into it.

Good tip, grease or no grease, you will want to protect your bearing races from the effects of sand blasting.

H.

andrew honychurch · #7 08-02-11, 16:54

oh I quite agree. I have taken all the races and cups out. What you see in the photo is the edge that the cups drive up against. This way I should have no sand at all once I have cleaned them once more and blown them out. Well hopefully less than driving in the western desert may have ingested.