Lament for a lost grease.

[Frank DolmanParticipant @frankdolman72357]

     Once upon a time, when the world was a better place, it was possible

   to obtain “a general purpose lime based grease for use where there are

   no high temperature requirements”  It was called Castrol Medium Grease.

  

   Castrol Medium was honey coloured and opaque, it was quite unrivalled

   for greasing things that needed greasing. Nothing could touch it.

 

     I am sure that Castrol would say that their current range includes

   products superior in performance to Medium, whatever application one

   might chose but they disregard the emotions of the user.

 

     Happily, I have enough Medium left to see me out but I must not be

   selfish and I truly feel for those in a less fortunate position

       

     Please tell me that I am wrong and Medium is not discontinued !                                                                                                      

    

[Frank DolmanParticipant @frankdolman72357]

[KWILParticipant @kwil]

Do you really mean Castrol LM, a light buttery coloured grease you used for nearly everything?  A general purpose Lithium based grease? Still can get it.

Edited By KWIL on 19/03/2010 14:41:14

[DoddyParticipant @doddy]

 

It’s on the Castrol web page

http://www.castrol.com/castrol/sectiongenericarticle.do?categoryId=9014109&contentId=7027101

 

and sell it at Wilco for a fiver a tub !

[Frank DolmanParticipant @frankdolman72357]

     Castrol LM is lithium based, not lime.  My tub of LM has a list of Castrol greases

   on the side which includes Medium.  LM is excellent in its way but it is stiffer than

   Medium

[LADmachiningParticipant @ladmachining]

I remember Castrol listed a lime-based grease for use in outboard motor gear cases or other applications where water resistance was required.  Can’t seem to find it any more.,,  It wasn’t that long ago I last saw it… I think!

[Steve GarnettParticipant @stevegarnett62550]

Posted by Frank Dolman on 19/03/2010 12:52:49:

 

…and I truly feel for those in a less fortunate position

       

     Please tell me that I am wrong and Medium is not discontinued !                                                                                                      

    

 It’s only called lime – really it’s a calcium base, and there are plenty of calcium-based greases about – for instance, this one. I don’t think that Castrol make one any more, though, as it’s not even in the ‘classic’ range. But there’s no particular need for anybody to be deprived, by the look of it – it just won’t be made by Castrol.

Edited By Steve Garnett on 19/03/2010 21:18:45

[Martin WParticipant @martinw]

Hi

 

Steve under the Castrol link above there is in the Classic Grease selection a calcium based grease under the heading CL Grease. Whether this is the same or not as the Morris grease you refer to I have no idea but for the die hards Castrol are still in the market for a calcium grease.

 

I must admit that I prefer to use greases with molybdenum additive for no other reason than they offer that extra protection. Still as they say it’s a personal choice in non critical applications.

 

Cheers

 

Martin W

[Steve GarnettParticipant @stevegarnett62550]

Oh yes – so they do! I have no idea whether it’s anything like what Frank has either. I do have some sympathy for this ‘old grease’ thing – some of the older Castrol grease just seems – well, more ‘grease-like’ somehow. Yes, I know that’s daft, but whatever…

 

I still have a little of this older stuff, but not very much.

 

 

[Frank DolmanParticipant @frankdolman72357]

     For moisture resistance, CL is the Beezeneez but it is not Castrol Medium!

   Steve has got the point, it is lacking in greaseworthiness.  The calcium

   ( or lime ) base is just coincidence.

[Martin WParticipant @martinw]

Steve

 

I completely agree with what you say about some of the older greases. I was going to say something similar about the moly grease being ‘greasier’   but decided to rationalise my reasons for using it. Seriously though I find that the moly based grease just seems to make things slide/move more smoothly than ordinary unloaded grease especially after a little while when it has really got to all the contact surfaces.

 

I now wait for this post to explode into a frenzy of advice of which grease to use where and why and how and when etc..

 

That said in my youth I used to work part time in a garage, when cars had a chassis and engines came with side valves as standard and points were cleaned and reset etc. We were instructed to use a graphite based grease on the sparking plug threads. It was soon found that if there was a trace of grease left on the plug body the spark would track down this rather than the plug gap. It caused several engines to sound pretty rough until the cause was found  !

 

Enough ramblings for now from an oldun.

 

Cheers

 

Martin W

Edited By Martin W on 21/03/2010 11:33:00

[Steve GarnettParticipant @stevegarnett62550]

Posted by Martin W on 21/03/2010 11:31:00: 

 

I now wait for this post to explode into a frenzy of advice of which grease to use where and why and how and when etc..

 

Ah, that will be complicated, because clearly it’s going to depend on how old you are!

[CirclipParticipant @circlip]

But for lots of the “Kids” the discussion will be about ten feet above there heads.

 

  Pity the newbies haven’t sorted the post/ad overlap out yet????

 

  Regards   Ian.

[Chris CrosskeyParticipant @chriscrosskey26628]

Sturmey Archer’s own brand grease was calcium-additive based…. I’ve still got a pot of it somewhere for the Sturmey I grafted onto my Sinclair C5 to give3 it gears on the pedals…. Wierdly it never looked much like grease though, more like swarfega….. when I upgraded the C5’s electric motor reduction gear to steel pinions with proper bearings I used the Sturmey grease on them and the thing stopped eating gearboxes every couple of thousand miles…. I did a lot of miles on a C5 back then…

 

[Steve GarnettParticipant @stevegarnett62550]

Posted by Chris Crosskey on 24/12/2010 12:47:04:

I did a lot of miles on a C5 back then…

 

Quite amazing in itself. Even more amazing that you lived to tell the tale!!!!!

[Gordon WParticipant @gordonw]

Was in my local garage a couple of weeks ago. They had some stuff labeled “racing grease” I asked the man what it was, He laughed and said ” expensive”

[Howard JonesParticipant @howardjones35282]

grease is typically an oil in a mineral soap to make it stay in position.

lime, bentonite and a few other minerals probably work equally as well.

 

if you want a lovely honey coloured grease try Shell aviation wheel bearing grease, it is lovely squishy stuff in the fingers and lubes taper rollers really well. it is great!

 

I used to use BP water resistant boat bearing grease, lovely honey stuff as well but it is no longer made.

but it is not a problem Castrol make a beautiful water resistant boat bearing grease, lovely squishy stuff and to prove we arent curmudgeons is bright blue.

 

of course the real test of a good grease is whether it ever freezes solid. good ones dont.

 

water resistant boat bearing grease is a good all rounder if you need one.

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