To grease or not to grease...

[supergreg]

I wonder if it is necessary at all to put grease between drive shafts and gearbox-joints/wheel axles? Some people say you will have much more wear when NOT greasing them at all. Is that true? What is your way to go?

It looks to me that greased parts turn into a sandpaper-ish stuff when running on sand/dust-surfaces and result in lots of wear to the axles. I used to take apart the arms and clean everything after each run, but there must be a better solution. I recently ordered a set of silicone seals designed for tamiya axles/shafts, but they do not fit properly on the gearbox side. See picture:

I tried to tighten them up with nylon band (like on Monster Beetle), but there is not enough space below the joint when the axle turns.

To grease or not to grease? What is your suggestion?

thanks

[GPZ1000RX]

Try a Teflon or PTFE based "dry" lube. Tryflow is good but expensive and hard to find. GT85 is cheap and easy to get, a large spray tin is about £3.50 from Halfords.

[smallman28]

I have greased them before and then seen the mess they got into so didn't bother again,all I do now is give them a quick blast of WD40 to wash off any grit etc and it seems to work okay.

[Jimmy_GT-R]

I run all my outer driveshafts dry with no grease at all. runs fine with me, but on my gears i use a very light high temperature oil. This maks them smooth, free and very quiet.

Thanks

James

[supergreg]

thanks for your responses, guys. Any others around here, who do NOT grease the axles?

cheers

[mr_pushrod]

I don't run with grease on the driveshafts as it quickly turns to grinding paste[8)]