Joined Aug 2005
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Forum Thread
Lubrication for Plastic Gears
March 9, 2011 at
02:09 PM
I have a scanner that has a motor that seems to be dying maybe. It is a gear motor and drives plastic looking gears (my guess is they are nylon) . They have some grease on them but its pretty dirty. My hope is that I can clean it up and apply new lubrication and at least get by a few more months till our new imaging system is implemented with a new scanner. My question is What to use for lubrication? White Lithium grease is what I am thinking?
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Molycote PG75
Molycote PG75
Thanks for the suggestions.
Do you need grease though? Or oil? I understand the difference, but I've transitioned to a simple oil in outdoor applications which has surpassed my expectations.
Back several years ago when I rebuilt a few VCR machines, all the manuals had big notes written in red telling the techs to only use white lithium grease to lubricate the plastic gears because petroleum grease would cause damage to the gears. I found this to be the case also (from experience) to use this white lithium grease on the plastic or nylon rollers used in window mechanisms for many older vehicles. Owners and shade tree mechanics had used vaseline or axel grease to lube these and the nylon or plastic rollers came apart. I always replaced them and used the white lithium after I saw the damage from the other lubricants.
I would be extremely careful when cleaning the old grease out not to spread it to areas you don't want grease to be in -- this could cause you to have troubles with your images. Same thing when adding grease -- use a toothpick or a Q-tip to apply the grease and keep it in the area it belongs.
I would NOT use any type of oil -- even if it isn't petroleum based -- because it is thin and won't stay where you want it around the gears. Gears meshing and spinning, even at a slow pace, will "sling" oil to areas other than you want it to be in. Or, it will just run off from gravity and leave the gears with no lubrication. Grease is thicker and stays put.