Do you guys lube your balls?

[Coelacanth]

Seriously and innuendo aside, for your runners, do you lube your balls & ball ends/cups with grease or leave them alone? There are arguments for both options; lubing with grease should make them last longer, but the grease attracts dust & dirt into the socket. So who lubes their balls?

[GoMachV]

I run mine dry. Plastics are naturally oily and really shouldn't need it anyway. If I ever have a sticky joint, I lightly squeeze the ball cup and it will always free up

I thought you were asking about diff balls at first, I have always lightly lubed the plates instead of the balls myself

I want to run with the innuendo but I will avoid it

[jwscab]

never added any type of lubrication to ball cups, nylon on metal has good wear properties.

gomachv, that is a common misconception. plastics aren't oily, ie, they don't have oil in them unless they are a special filled material. They are polymers, long carbon chains all molded together. They have a low coefficient of friction which makes them feel slippery.

[GoMachV]

Odd, my understanding was nylon and plastics in general were petroleum based

[jwscab]

petroleum based, but they undergo chemical reactions to form polymers. so if you were to break it down with a specific reaction, you *could get oil, but it's not like they have 30 weight oil just oozing out. Oil has like up to 20 or so carbon atoms in a row. plastics can have thousands. it's really neat stuff.

[Bormac]

Good topic.
I have been giving my Schuey ball cups a light squirt of INOX prior to popping them onto the ball stud. I often have foam donuts that provide a nice seal from dust too.
This has worked well for me. Stops the studs from rusting too.

[GoMachV]

Cause there is nothing worse than rusty balls
Popeye soaks his in olive oil

Sorry...it had to happen

[RC10th]

Dry balls over here. Only time I'd replace them is when they'd get sloppy due to hard weekly use... (racing)

Other than that I wouldn't worry about it.

[marlo]

For my 10T, I use very little stealth grease in mine. after every rebuild, I always clean them with alcohol, and re grease. Its getting harder to get stealth grease up here in Canada Though.

[JK Racing]

When assembling a brand new kit, I usually touch a little Chapstick or other wax like lip gloss onto them.

They seem smooth for a very long time, and the flavor/smell is an added bonus

[Coelacanth]

When assembling a brand new kit, I usually touch a little Chapstick or other wax like lip gloss onto them.

I guess that's not the only way you can get lip gloss on your balls.

[kaiser]

dry balls here.

anyone ever try deez nutz? (actual biking ointment to keep the nuts fresh and chaffe free)