[stew60]

Hi everyone, a quick question and I know it might sound silly but on the splines of a midget axle, should I use a little bit of grease on them at all? This is the 1st time I've had a splined axle, just bit the bullet and am back in the saddle of a midget after an 18 year layoff lol. My last midget had tapered hubs so looking after this is a whole new learning curve. Thanks in advance for your interest and replies....
Stewie

[6565]

Not necessary. I've seen people use everything from grease to just never-seize...biggest fricking mess you can imagine! It just attracts dirt and you can't remove a tire/wheel without needing a parts washer bath afterwards.

Best thing to do is when you wash your car, remove rear wheels and hit axle splines & threads (and spacers/nuts as necessary) with degreaser to keep them clean. After all is clean and dry, just a good fogging with WD-40 or similar, and maybe a little extra on the nut threads, also.

Anything else is messy and unnecessary.

And if you have the birdcages with a grease zerk in them, go easy on it. One small pump every few races is more than enough. Excess just gets slung out and winds up on wheel inner half, and too much grease makes bearings run hot anyway.

[TQ29m]

Not sayin it's the "approved" method, but I am running the same axle, that now has been in use since 1993, and I have never used anything on it, and it shows no signs of wear, and the wheels still slip on and off as easy as they did when it was new. Might be a good idea to use a wire brush on it once in a while, not a powered one, but one that has a wood or plastic handle, and is run by hand, I know manual labor is not in the books anymore, if you can't plug it in, or run it off a battery, ya don't do it, but sometimes you need another power source! Bob

[badcoupe]

I wipe some dry lube like graphite on mine occasionally especially the brake hub splines, probably unnecessary but I do it anyway.

[stew60]

Originally Posted by badcoupe I wipe some dry lube like graphite on mine occasionally especially the brake hub splines, probably unnecessary but I do it anyway.

Thanks for the responses guys, yeah I've been running the splines dry. I did think about maybe some anti size but as long as the axle nuts are loosened off after the A main So Far So Good. I was thinking any kind of grease would attract dirt and become a grinding paste?! There's a lot more maintenance involved now compared to my old car 20 years ago lol

[sprintracer82]

I have been using BR motorsports dry lube for years now with great luck. I use it on the torsion bars, wheels, splines, torque tub, anything other then front hubs that needed grease. Its a little pricey but it doesn't draw dirt like grease does.

[SWScaleChassis]

We've used Dupont spray teflon on the splines to keep them clean and freed up. You could use any kind of lubricant really, but WD-40 will draw the dust to em.

[TQ29m]

Graphite is also a good, dry lube, it is sold in hardware stores, primarily to lube the inside of key locks, without gumming them up, it comes in a self dispensing "blo-tube", that gets around any propellant that might cause other contaminants to become attracted to the area. It is inexpensive, and has lots of uses, where you need a dry lube! Bob

[racrguy]

Originally Posted by TQ29m Graphite is also a good, dry lube, it is sold in hardware stores, primarily to lube the inside of key locks, without gumming them up, it comes in a self dispensing "blo-tube", that gets around any propellant that might cause other contaminants to become attracted to the area. It is inexpensive, and has lots of uses, where you need a dry lube! Bob

I've tried to use the dry graphite and it never stays or leaves a film. Any ideas on how to get this stuff to stay in place?

[TQ29m]

When I apply it, I just dust some on, around the axle, then take a splined spacer and slide it back and forth a half dozen times, it stays on there, it's just hard to see, run a white rag on it, it'll come away black, at's almost as hard to get off your hands as thread gard, which some folks don't use anymore, they use Maylox, same stuff you use for a tummy ache! Bob