"Ian Malcolm" wrote in message
...

"Lloyd E. Sponenburgh" lloydspinsidemindspring.com wrote in
. 3.70:

Bob Engelhardt fired this volley in
:

I'm inclined to try gear oil, but I thought I'd collect RCM thoughts
on it first.

I'd more naturally assume that _either_ they were made of oilite to
begin with, and the grooves were just for maintenance oiling, where
the oil is expected to run out after having created a film, OR that
they were intended to be greased.

When such a sleeve is intended to be oiled instead of greased, there's
usually a felt washer on the ends or a wick in the oil hole to soak up
and re-feed oil into the gap as necessary.

LLoyd


If it was made of Oilite bronze, the pores are now unrecoverably blocked so
you will have to go with grease anyway, or replace the bearings. If you
want a long, trouble free life with the existing bearings, a remote greaser
would be a good idea. Clean out the other bearings and plumb the kit to
all of them and the only maintenance the bearings will need for the
forseeable future would be a turn on the greaser handle evey few months.

OTOH if you replace them with modern bearings, they may well run long
enough with no maintenance to become sombody else's problem
--
Ian Malcolm. London, ENGLAND. (NEWSGROUP REPLY PREFERRED)
ianm[at]the[dash]malcolms[dot]freeserve[dot]co[dot]uk
[at]=@, [dash]=- & [dot]=. *Warning* HTML & 32K emails -- NUL

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The Oilite bushings in the burner fan on my furnace dried up around 25 years
ago, and seized. Since the motor is no longer available, and replacing the
bearings would have been a nightmare, I just put one drop of South Bend
plain-bearing spindle oil on each bushing every two months or so.

It runs better than ever. Since then I've gotten in the habit of doing the
same with many other plain bearings.

--
Ed Huntress