Cleaning a Ball bearing headstock bearing

Kevinb71

Kevinb71

Active User
H-M Supporter - Silver Member
In my continuing effort to rebuild my model 1875 Logan I kept finding that the front headstock bearing after sitting for a couple days would be locked tight. If I stuck it in the solvent tank it would loosen up and feel "ok", but not great. If I blew the ball area of the bearing out with air, it would feel sticky or gummy. I went back and forth several times and then would let it sit for a day or two, and same thing. Bearing locked for rotation by hand. I was beginning to think I would just have to replace the bearing as I couldn't get it cleaned out. As a last ditch effort(why not if I'm just going to throw it away anyhow) I squirted a very powerful concentration of ZEP purple into the bearing. I knew immediately that it was doing something as the bearing went from sticky to loose and brown fluid began coming from it. I let this sit in the bearing for at most two minutes and then flushed the bearing with HOT water at a good pressure. I then immediately sprayed it full of WD-40 to get rid of the water. This process made it feel like a brand new high quality bearing. I let it sit one day and it is still loose and smooth. Just like new. I think that the old grease had just hardened inside the bearing and would lodge in the balls after it sat awhile. I will let it sit for a couple days now and see what happens. I know from cleaning up other machined surfaces that you don't want to leave the ZEP in there too long and especially don't want to let it dry. It seems to have worked for me. At least so far. This may be old news to you guys, but in doing a search for bearing cleaning I didn't find anything like this, so I thought I'd post it here
 
Good post. Bearing grease will solidify over time.

"Billy G" :))
 
I usually use a coffee can of lacquer thinner and wear rubber gloves and spin the bearing inside the can. You can also let the bearing soak in it over night. Then I blow it out with air. It will take a few tries to get it clean. You can have 2 cans, one for when its real dirty and clean. I have also used paint thinner, it's a bit easier on the hands, but Lacquer thinner works best. I would pack the clean bearing with Mobil Synthetic grease # 32. Pack the bearing 1/3 to 1/2 full as many pack bearings to full. If your not going to install the bearing for a while put it in a zip lock plastic bag. Have fun :-)
 
As Bill pointed out the ZEP I was referring to is the Industrial strength degreaser. This stuff is strong enough to soften and remove some paints if you let it sit on it a bit. I used it on my "new" K&T horizontal and it took some of the paint with it. Of course I am using it at about a 2 parts water to one part ZEP which is stronger than they recommend. But boy does it get after the grease! Just be sure to rinse it off with water and don't let it dry on the machine.

Before and after pictures. 2B Right.jpg2012-11-21_16-17-37_299.jpg

2B Right.jpg 2012-11-21_16-17-37_299.jpg
 
It likely the sticky stuff in the bearing was dried water soluble coolant. That's would explain why the solvent didn't cut it but the purple cleaner did. When I bought my Bridgeport it was covered in dried coolant and the only thing that removed it was Purple Power cleaner.
 
Zep Big Orange is an excellent degreaser and will do a good job removing adhesive residue left by most tapes. I originally bought it to remove tape residue left by grip tape on Titleist golf clubs. They used really nasty tape. One of my customers was a Zep rep. and he guaranteed it would remove the residue and it did. Nothing else worked. It is water soluble.
 
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