Alemlube grease gun question

[Wtrxprs007 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Wtrxprs007]

Don't know if this is the place to post this question but I think I should be fine.

Okay, so I recently bought a grease gun (alemlube lever type from sca) and loaded it up with castrol premium heavy duty grease (which apparently replaces castrol lmx) for greasing up some nipples this upcoming 130k service and all of a sudden I've just found it leaking like this: it's been doing this for the last few days I've had it and I don't know what's up with it… everything is done properly according to instructions and it's tightly put together but i don't know anymore…

help please?

[adrian5800 Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close adrian5800]

That's pretty normal, the grease contains oil and will leak over time from the gun. Store it in a container so the oil doesn't make a mess.

Cheers

[mjrandom Out of control poster! Find all posts View Profile Close mjrandom]

Grease is just oil in a soap matrix (lithium soap usually). When the grease is hot or under pressure it will drop some oil. No problems apart from the mess.

[ScottT Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close ScottT]

Grease is just oil in a soap matrix (lithium soap usually). When the grease is hot or under pressure it will drop some oil. No problems apart from the mess.

Some greases have less oil bleed than others, it's all to do with their application. Greases with less oil bleed have extended shearing during the blending process, others have less.

Higher NLGI grades tend to have less oil bleed also. Oil acts as a lubricant, hence the bleed. Your grease gun shouldn't leak oil though, it should contain it.

Lithium complex greases tend to have less oil bleed than straight Lithium greases.

If the oil is bleeding from the gun or cartridge, the same will happen in its' application, so the risk to your equipment increases.

I'd be interested to know which grease you're using, from there I might be able to suggest something different with less oil bleed

Just noticed your using PHD. On the cartridge is a batch number, could you advise what that is ? Might start with a Q, this will tell me what year it was made

Cheers, Scott

[Wtrxprs007 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Wtrxprs007]

Big thanks for the response guys.

I've just got the gun lying with an old towel over the head to soak up the mess now.

The grease I'm using is a 450g cartridge and is a lithium based based type and stated to be NLGI-2 according to the castrol website.

What's a PHD might I ask?

[ScottT Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close ScottT]

Big thanks for the response guys.

I've just got the gun lying with an old towel over the head to soak up the mess now.

The grease I'm using is a 450g cartridge and is a lithium based based type and stated to be NLGI-2 according to the castrol website.

What's a PHD might I ask?

PHD is Premium Heavy Duty, which replaced APXT and LMX. Also known as Marine Grease. Same grease as Valplex EP.

It is a Lithium Complex grease (differs in the soap structure and the blending time to a Lithium grease) It is a No. 2 grease (NLGI 2). The 2 indicates the "firmness" of the product under pressure.

This grease has excellent oil bleed characteristics and is renowned for its' minimal bleed.

Was it bleeding from the cartridge ? If not, the issue is with the gun.

As stated before, the oil will eventually separate from the soap, as this is how it lubricates the components being asked of it, it's just how quickly it bleeds under pressure is what you want to know.

PHD is an Australian made product, by an Australian family owned company and is an excellent product.

Cheers

[Wtrxprs007 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Wtrxprs007]

Ahhh okay. I was reading another thread about lubricating the driveshaft and the LMX was mentioned so I went and looked for that but PHD was all we could get.

Im not sure where it's bleeding from actually. It only started after I loaded it into the gun but just before I loaded it, I looked in the cartridge and it actually looked like there was liquidy like stuff above the grease but thought it was normal.