RC10Talk - The Net's Largest Vintage R/C Community

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?

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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

Sorry...it had to happen

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.

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.

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

JK Racing wrote: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.

dry balls here.

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