Copper Grease

[Eglwyseg]

There is a hell of a racket from my motor and suspect it needs a service, some grease perhaps.

Has anyone here used Copper Grease on these parts or does anyone have first hand information if is good or not to use.

After a search, one or two say they wouldn't use it but without giving any reason for saying so.

Some first hand experience of this stuff would be very useful at this moment.

Thanks.

 

[Nicholas Hammond]

Copper grease or copper slip is designed as an anti seize assembly grease, used for nuts, bolts dowel pins etc usually there is no movement between the components once assembled. I have used it often during my working life as an aid to disassembly later. Having said that I have used it with new balls in vintage bicycle and motorcycle hubs where there has been some pitting of the cup and cone races. It seems to smooth out the running. Being quite malleable perhaps the copper gets compacted into the pits? However I personally would not recommend this for long term use or in a higher speed application much better to use a grease designed for the specific purpose.

 

[Nealh]

It's in the name the element cooper will act finely like a grinding paste which will induce wear on moving parts.
Use a moly grease or a silicone one.

 

[atheo]

It's in the name the element cooper will act finely like a grinding paste which will induce wear on moving parts.
Use a moly grease or a silicone one.

Don't use silicone grease where metal to metal friction is involved as it can cause galling of the surfaces.

 

[Nev]

I think I have read on this forum in the past that copper grease can cause corrosion due to electrolytic action taking place between different types of metals. Someone might be able to find the thread for you, I will take a look but I often struggle to find previous threads.

 

[Nealh]

Noise can be a lack of grease where nylon gears/clutch interact with the metal outer fixed tooth ring, silicon grease can be used for this application. Gears/clutch can be noisy if worn, complete clutch replacement or individual gears may be possible to replace. Also noise can be due to various warn sealed bearings that are quite easy to replace when the hub is apart, the main culprit is the face plate bearing which is easy to drive out using a correct sized drift, a correct socket from a socket set is ideal. If a bearing is worn I also replace any other bearing/s at the same time as they come to about £10 to buy. You may be able to detect rough/warn bearings by slow gentle hand rotation when the hub is apart.
At my disposal I have a tin of moly grease of many years in age so this is what I use.

 

[vfr400]

Noise from the motor is 9 times out of 10 caused by an electrical fault (pulse timing), not a mechanical one even though it feels and sounds like a mechanical issue.

Before taking your wheel off, you should provide more information about the type of noise and the circumstances around it. Which motor? How old? How many miles? When does it make the noise? etc.

 

[Eglwyseg]

Little bit of a paradox here because I have taken the wheel off and opened up the gear cage and applied some silicone grease which contains some PTFE. Everything looked perfect in there. It has actually made the motor slightly quieter but the original 'strange noise' still persists. The best I can describe the noise is a pulsed scrrr, scrrr, scrrr, say a couple of times a second depending on speed. It's not there if applying throttle gently and once the bike gets going the noise virtually disappears. Heavy throttle will bring it on.

I went the silicone grease route after several of our subscribers said no to Copper grease. I asked in the first place, because I have a 1 pound [weight] tin of copper and a mere 18 grms of silicone though discovered I didn't need much anyway.

I have no idea either as to which motor as I bought it in a generic kit over 12 months ago and has run well till now, here is a photo. Entry into the hub is via the end disc/plate held with 6 small screws, 4 of which are on view in the picture. It is a 36v motor, just over 12 months old and probably done 700/800 miles.

 

[Nealh]

The pulsing noise could be electrical and is in my view a much different noise to a mech issue.
Checking motor connector and phase wire connection are normal suspects, intermitant/bad connection is the normal cause.

 

[vfr400]

Little bit of a paradox here because I have taken the wheel off and opened up the gear cage and applied some silicone grease which contains some PTFE. Everything looked perfect in there. It has actually made the motor slightly quieter but the original 'strange noise' still persists. The best I can describe the noise is a pulsed scrrr, scrrr, scrrr, say a couple of times a second depending on speed. It's not there if applying throttle gently and once the bike gets going the noise virtually disappears. Heavy throttle will bring it on.

I went the silicone grease route after several of our subscribers said no to Copper grease. I asked in the first place, because I have a 1 pound [weight] tin of copper and a mere 18 grms of silicone though discovered I didn't need much anyway.

I have no idea either as to which motor as I bought it in a generic kit over 12 months ago and has run well till now, here is a photo. Entry into the hub is via the end disc/plate held with 6 small screws, 4 of which are on view in the picture. It is a 36v motor, just over 12 months old and probably done 700/800 miles.

No type of grease is going to solve your electrical problem.

 

[Eglwyseg]

I'll look at the electrics possibly tomorrow, it will just be a basic search lose wires, connections etc..

Thanks.

 

[vfr400]

It could be blown components in your controller. You'll need a multi-meter to test that, but it could still be something simple like dirty or loose connectors. If you have the 9 pin connectors half way up the fork, make sure it's in all the way to the line.

 

[Nealh]

My Oxydrive controller developed a fault/s before I finally ditched it, it would make a heavy loud electrical mis-contact noise that resonated and sounded like it was coming form the hub. It would come and go and went on like that for about 3 or 4 months, the final straw was when the lcd kept shutting down because of lvc error code with two batteries. The batteries were fine and well balanced at above 40v.
I swapped all out for KT stuff.