Joe wrote:
mm wrote:
What's with my grease gun?

Toss it, the thing is junk. Buy a decent grease gun, some lube tubes
and READ THE LABELS and follow directions.

Is lithium grease what I should be using, say for tie rod ends and
ball joints?

No. Both need a high pressure grease. Litrhium is best for low pressure
applications that may be subject to water, like boat trailer bearings.
Moly greases are better for higher stresses.

....

Depends on the formulation of the grease--moly greases are a
comparatively recent thing, so while they are common now there are
lithium formulations as well that are fully suitable for the
application. We're still using a lithium-based grease on all vehicles
and farm equipment and have been using this particular formulation
(from a large farmers' co-op) for nearly 30 years and have never had a
lubrication failure in all that time.

There are other lithium greases (like some of the white greases) that
aren't suitable so I shouldn't have made the blanket "yes" but
qualified it w/ a "depends", but I was thinking of similar greases as
that am using. (It's a nice bright blue, btw, the same Co-op's common
moly is a pretty golden color But, mix the two together and it
turns into an ugly brown near solid gritty-feeling gel that gets very
hard and the net result is worse than not lubricating at all. ).

The compatibility problem is the prime reason I continue to stick
exclusively w/ the lithium-based--not having multiple products on hand
is part of it, but the biggest reason is a hand can't use the wrong one
on a $150k piece of equipment if there isn't anything but "the right
stuff" in the oil house.

So, out of curiousity since I've continued w/ the same product for so
long (simply because it was doing the job, why change?), and I've not
really looked at what's happening overall although I do know there's a
transition to other products even at the local Co-op, a quick DAGS from
the Lubrizol R&D web site found the following interesting tidbit...

"In North America and Western Europe, the use of commodity greases is
declining by about 5% per year, whereas the use of both
high-specification and specialty products is increasing by about 5% per
year. Almost half of the greases used in North America and Western
Europe are lithium-thickened products, and about one-fifth are lithium
complex products."

So, maybe I'll only be a true anachronism in another 20 years or so...

But, I really should talk to the lube specialist and find the
recommended transition path since undoubtedly this product doesn't have
an indefinite future life, though. This subthread kinda' got my
attention on looking into that a little more seriously.