What type of grease for sleeve bearing fan shafts?

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scgt1

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I purchased some Yate Loon 120mm fans a long time ago, removed the stickers, popped the plug and the white retainer clip to paint the blades then never used them. I'm looking at putting them to use for temporary as I sell my SP120's to pickup LL120s. I was told at one time the type of grease to use on the fan shaft but we are talking some 8 or so years ago. I don't remember what it was. LOL

Could electrical grease or spark plug grease be used or does it not have the right properties to hold up to friction?
 
Depends on the bearing - some (most? all?) of them are made to run without any grease or come permanently greased from the factory, and greasing them will actually gunk them up and damage them. Sure, they spin sorta fast, but there isn't a lot of weight or lift on those fans to create a ton of friction there.

I've never greased a 120mm fan bearing before - usually I get my 10 or so years out of them, and when the bearing or motor goes, it's just time for a new fan. I have used a drop of light machine oil before (3in1, sewing machine, or gun oil) and got bearings that were just starting to fail but hadn't seized entirely to keep spinning for a while longer.

I tend to work in more industrial stuff, and if it's made to be greased, it has a grease fitting. Of course a 120mm isn't going to have a zerk... but I didn't know greasing fan bearings was even a thing.
 
Brian_B said:
Depends on the bearing - some (most? all?) of them are made to run without any grease or come permanently greased from the factory, and greasing them will actually gunk them up and damage them. Sure, they spin sorta fast, but there isn't a lot of weight or lift on those fans to create a ton of friction there.

I've never greased a 120mm fan bearing before - usually I get my 10 or so years out of them, and when the bearing or motor goes, it's just time for a new fan. I have used a drop of light machine oil before (3in1, sewing machine, or gun oil) and got bearings that were just starting to fail but hadn't seized entirely to keep spinning for a while longer.

I tend to work in more industrial stuff, and if it's made to be greased, it has a grease fitting. Of course a 120mm isn't going to have a zerk... but I didn't know greasing fan bearings was even a thing.
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They had grease on them originally which of course had to be cleaned off after spraying the blades. Otherwise I would just pop them together and run them since it is just for temporary but they must have been greased for a reason from Yate Loon.
 
They have sealed bearings. Unless they are noisy they are fine. And if I used anything it wouldn't be grease it would be oil.
 
jmilcher said:
They have sealed bearings. Unless they are noisy they are fine. And if I used anything it wouldn't be grease it would be oil.
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They are not sealed. They are sleeve bearings so there is a brass sleeve inserted in the middle of the fan motor then the metal shaft of the fan blade slides into the brass sleeve. If there is no lubrication then it's metal on metal. It wasn't an oil the was on them from the factory. Your thinking of grease as thick like wheel bearings or something. Not all grease is thick and tacky like that. The grease that was on them was more like vaseline so more of an oily yet still semi tacky grease texture to it.
 
believe me or not, but the best lub for fans is car motor mineral oil... all kind of grease tend to become dry after some time.. oil not. i've using 20W-50 american eagle mineral oil for years for all fans I lube the first time, and I never have to do it again for another 3 or 4 years.
 
Less viscous oil is best. Sleeve bearings work by oil suspension. The oil has to be thin enough to get easily between the bearing and spindle, thick enough that it won't weep thru the seals at the end of the bearing but not so thick that it puts its own drag on the spindle.

On older sleeve bearing fans that seal wear happens and the lube ends up weeping out. Most of the time you are just better off replacing the fans because if the seal is worn enough to let the lube weep out, it won't stop any replacement lube from doing the same in short order. Sleeve bearing fans are pretty cheap to buy, but they do have a limited life for the reasons I just gave.
 
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