Our team is modifying the Andymark Toughboxes to have different gear ratios. As such, we have purchased some gears from VexPro, but unfortunately we don’t have more of the “strawberry jam” grease that came with the toughboxes in the kitbot chassis.
I intend on running to the local hardware store tomorrow to acquire white lithium grease, but we’re wondering if we need to clean out the toughboxes of the “strawberry jam”. Like, if there’s some of it left, will it react with the white lithium and cause an explosion or something of the sort (exaggerated, but you get the idea )?
Also, what’s the official name for that grease? We all call it “strawberry jam” because it looks like it… except that it’s not.
IMO, the red tacky grease holds up a lot better than white lithium grease. I’ve gone entire seasons without re-greasing after assembling gearboxes with generous amounts of the red grease.
Do not mix them (probably). There are two kinds of white lithium greases, a spray-on form, and a paste form. The spray on kind will not function as intended, as it evaporates and leaves a film behind which is the lubricant. You may have better luck with the paste form of white lithium (comes in tubes, not cans), although my guess for that is only speculation.
Either way, it’s almost always good form to remove previous lubrication when switching to a different kind.
a small tub of red grease from an auto parts store (or Walmart) is not very expensive, and will last a long time! And you can pack the wheel bearings in your trailer with it, too.
There should be no problem mixing them, assuming the AM grease is indeed Lithium. This chart shows lithium grease types are compatible with each other, and should not have any problem being mixed.
The cost of the used grease is not the issue. It’s the time and effort required to thoroughly remove the used grease if it is chemically incompatible with the replacement grease.
Hm, on this end it came out as a heavy Bronx accent.
Best you learn about Nitrile Gloves. Chemicals on Skin is easily avoided, and should be.
Clean the old grease off with isopropyl alcohol (with good ventilation): The 91% stuff is an excellent degreaser. That and a toothbrush will make short work of it.
I can also speculate that mixing is harmless, but what if I’m wrong?
WD40 also works as a very good degreaser. I’ll second wearing gloves instead, but if that’s not an option, most workshops have WD40 lying around.
423 has a tube of white lithium grease that we used to grease all our gearboxes. Some of those gearboxes were AndyMark gearboxes with Strawberry Jam grease still in them (some also had a green grease I can’t identify). As far as I know, we never saw any reactions or interactions between the two (or three) greases.
I’m being told that the common white lithium grease, which we used to lubricate VersaPlanetary gearboxes, does not adhere to gears well, and is the reason our VPs failed as much as they did. The red stuff is supposed to work better, supposedly it sticks to the metal better.
a) Is that true?
b) How certain are we that the Lucas Oil product is the same as what AndyMark sells? (I too would rather buy a tube or tub or bottle than dozens of little packets we’ll leave lying everywhere.)
The linked MSDSon the AndyMark packet clearly shows the product as “Lucas Red and Tacky #2 Grease Product Number 10005,” identical to the tube linked by Chris
Just a tip, for those who use the spray on white lithium grease. Try the paste form of white lithium instead. It tends to work better and is what VEX themselves use https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bYcFiGb8ZE
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