Wing pin grease

I've got to agree with Tom on this one.Â* Cleaning off and reapplying
grease to the wing pins of all of my previous gliders seemed like such a
waste

Interesting, on my Ventus B, it seemed harder to assemble if I didn't replace the grease every other assembly. I haven't repeated the experiment on the Ventus 2. I felt that wiping out the grease and replacing was good insurance if also wipes out the dirt which is potentially abrasive. It's hard to argue with success if old grease is keeping your pins pretty.

I asked about grease because with the good ole' white grease, I was seeing a ring of dark stuff on the load bearing surfaces of the pins after flying. Thought it might be metal from the pin. Since then, I got out Mr. Starret and measured. Everything looks good, so perhaps the dark stuff was from the grease.

Perhaps resorting to digesting grease specs is an early warning sign of Covid cabin fever. Naa, the inner nerd would do it anyway. Cheers.

out west in the dust bowl that I fly in ( you name an airport in AZ that isnt one) it makes sense to clean and lube every assy. otherwise the paste mix that ensues wears in everything. I e replaced everything at least once even with cleaning and regreasing every time. But then Most people dont put the hours on their ships that I used to

My observation is that grease makes a difference in reducing lift pin wear from fretting. It’s pretty much impossible to get the wings to fit tight enough to avoid the lift pins sliding in and out of the bearings when yaw forces are transferred between the fuselage and wings. It isn’t much movement, but over time it’s a significant cause of wear. The movement should be reduced as much as possible by inserting shims, but getting to zero movement makes assembly difficult. No free lunch.

Craig
JN

Most of the dust is near the ground, you should try flying a little
higher...

Lol! Ive seen dust devils past 10k agl! But as 6K used to say "All I ever find in dust devils is dust"

CH