Best Lubrication for Bearings with Contact Seals

[mechEhere]

Hi,

I am using single row deep groove ball bearings with double contact seals for maximum protection. However, with the contact seals, there is considerably more drag. The bearings are pre-greased of course, but I would like to remove the heavy grease and put in some lighter lubrication. What is the best lubrication that alleviates the drag from the contact seals? Thanks!

 

[romke]

the seals are there to keep the lubricant in and dirt out. the lowest drag would be achieved when using bearings without seals that for lubrication rely on the lubricant used around it and for cleanliness on seals used in the compartment they are in.

what is the actual application? do you need sealed bearings or is there a possibility to use oil? a relatively light oil would give the least amount of drag, but may not be compatibile with the actual bearing load/speed combination

 

[evelrod]

If I understand what you are attempting...it may work on a very lightly loaded bearing. I'm not sure it will be productive in the long run, it was not for me.

I had a pair of sealed bearings on the rear axle of a race car. I took one of the seals off and cleaned the bearing replacing the grease with a synthetic (Redline then, Mobil 1...the red stuff, now). First attempt was because I wanted a "better" lube. Second attempt was with a MOS₂ grease intended for my front CV joint. That freed things up a bit, but it still made no discernible change in performance that I could see. I gave up on it and went back to the OEM grease...The stock bearings seemed to give adequate service.

It's been quite a few years, things may have changed...I don't currently have any sealed bearings in service. The Lotus rear has been converted to a Quaife full floating setup (bearings lubed with Mobil 1 synthetic grease) I still use the Mobil 1 grease in all my bearings, save the front CV's.

Rod

 

[Tmoose]

I'm not sure light enough lube could be used to really cut seal drag very much.

Plus, For really long life ball and roller bearings (and gears) need to operate under conditions of ElastoHydroDynamic (EHD) lubrication. For a given temperature, Rpm, ball diameter and pitch diameter, there is a minumum lube base oil viscosity required to achieve EHD.

If seal drag is REALLY interfering with your requirements (torque or running temperature) shielded bearings offer pretty good protection with less drag than seals.

Precision spindle bearings use small controlled amounts of very fancy and expensive grease to achieve their high speeds with good life.