Bel Ray Molylube Anti-Seize CV Joint Grease Compound

Looney Duner said:
Factory front drive vehicles have almost no angle on the joints except when making a turn, sure they last 100k plus miles, but 90% of their life is with 0 angle. No angle = no heat = long life.
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Not necessarily true.  How many lifted 4x4 trucks run some pretty good angle?  There isn't typically a locking hub, so they are constantly turning. 

 
Kraut_n_Rice said:
Not necessarily true.  How many lifted 4x4 trucks run some pretty good angle?  There isn't typically a locking hub, so they are constantly turning. 
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Constantly turning yes, but if the 4x4 is not engaged there is no torque being applied to the joints. Still an apples to oranges comparison. 

 
I'm kinda surprised that an "anti seize" type compound is used/recommended for CVs  Even though it's called a lubricant, it's designed to be used in applications that don't really have movement.  It has solids in it that keep mating surfaces from bonding.  Like a bolt that is stationary, but you will not want it to gall to the other surface during install/removal.  Slow actions.

Traditional anti-seize is a big no-no in areas a lot of movement or vibration cycles, like a splined shaft driven implement.  The solid properties of the anti-seize actually be some more like an abrasive.  Grinding the mating surfaces away.  This is called Fretting.  You would never want to put anti-seize on the splines of a drive shaft.  There are specific lubricants for applications like this.  Anti-fretting compounds.  When a failure is found in these applications, typically splined, the disassembled pieces look like they are/were greased, but may have become wet as the "grease" looks rusted.  This is fretting wear or sometimes called fretting corrosion.  The orange color is a telltale sign of fretting.  This happens because the wrong lube (or no lube) was used, like anti-seize.

 
Kraut_n_Rice said:
Has anyone ever tried what OEMs put in their CVs?  Honda has/had different compounds for inner vs outer CVs too.  One green/blueish, the other mustard yellow.

I've pulled apart OE axles with near 100k on them, grease is still thick.  Granted, they don't run 20* constantly, and aren't getting hammered by 500hp.  But the grease will last a decade+ doing 80mph for 5 hours straight no sweat.
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Not bragging, just speaking from experience- I prepped two Class 1 Unlimited cars for 10 years and was Crew Chief for 3 of those years. We prepped the CVs after each race. These races could be 250 miles or like the 2012 Baja 1000 peninsula run 1132 miles. I made sure to slowly take the car apart after each race so I could see what was loose, broken, rubbing, or just worn out. That was my job. So 1132 miles of harrrd Baja racing and the CVS looked great with the Swepco/BelRay mix. So that's what I use. I prep 15 sets of CVs a year and always use the same mix. It just works. Honda may use two different greases and their R&D budget is in the millions of dollars but I know what I have seen work in racing and in the dunes from personal experience. 

 
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Kraut_n_Rice said:
I'm kinda surprised that an "anti seize" type compound is used/recommended for CVs  Even though it's called a lubricant, it's designed to be used in applications that don't really have movement.  It has solids in it that keep mating surfaces from bonding.  Like a bolt that is stationary, but you will not want it to gall to the other surface during install/removal.  Slow actions.

Traditional anti-seize is a big no-no in areas a lot of movement or vibration cycles, like a splined shaft driven implement.  The solid properties of the anti-seize actually be some more like an abrasive.  Grinding the mating surfaces away.  This is called Fretting.  You would never want to put anti-seize on the splines of a drive shaft.  There are specific lubricants for applications like this.  Anti-fretting compounds.  When a failure is found in these applications, typically splined, the disassembled pieces look like they are/were greased, but may have become wet as the "grease" looks rusted.  This is fretting wear or sometimes called fretting corrosion.  The orange color is a telltale sign of fretting.  This happens because the wrong lube (or no lube) was used, like anti-seize.
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Their name anti-seize is a little misleading, it just contains a high percentage of moly, and graphite lubricant versus the typical anti seize which contains fine particles of aluminum, copper, and graphite as a sacrificial material.

I brought a couple bulk buckets of belray  4 years ago that I mix with swepco 101 and put in at the beginning of the season. Each trip i top off with 164 to keep the balls wet if they’re shiny.

 
Just used my first 2 “mix” tubes from Foddrill’s 

Not as much “volume” as the swepco tubes or bel ray tubes have. 
Probably closer to the Bel Ray caulk tubes. 
Consistency is the same as after I mix raw Bel ray and Swepco. 
Anyway, not bashing on the product, just reporting to help others when they order.  
I appreciate Foddrill’s mixing and selling it. 

 
Kraut_n_Rice said:
I'm kinda surprised that an "anti seize" type compound is used/recommended for CVs  Even though it's called a lubricant, it's designed to be used in applications that don't really have movement.  It has solids in it that keep mating surfaces from bonding.  Like a bolt that is stationary, but you will not want it to gall to the other surface during install/removal.  Slow actions.

Traditional anti-seize is a big no-no in areas a lot of movement or vibration cycles, like a splined shaft driven implement.  The solid properties of the anti-seize actually be some more like an abrasive.  Grinding the mating surfaces away.  This is called Fretting.  You would never want to put anti-seize on the splines of a drive shaft.  There are specific lubricants for applications like this.  Anti-fretting compounds.  When a failure is found in these applications, typically splined, the disassembled pieces look like they are/were greased, but may have become wet as the "grease" looks rusted.  This is fretting wear or sometimes called fretting corrosion.  The orange color is a telltale sign of fretting.  This happens because the wrong lube (or no lube) was used, like anti-seize.
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Pre-crash, I said almost the exact same thing.  One thing I didn't consider was that a CV doesn't really move all that much despite spinning at 100mph.  The balls only move when there's angle, but even at max angle it's not even a full revolution.  There are also a bunch of different anti-seize compounds out there, and Bel Ray is designed to be a super thick lubricant not a corrosion inhibitor.

That being said: I miss OG Cat Desert Gold.  Never had a single problem with that stuff straight out of the tube.

 
Cat still has that grease, the new Part number is 452-6016.  Same spec as the old desert gold,  I'm not sure if the formula changed or not but I have been using it last 2 years in our equipment at work and my 930 CV's with no issues to speak of.  CV's are still full of grease when I service them once a year, and it doesn't seem to sling out of the boot on the axle side like the other mixtures do.   

 
452-6016CATExtremeApplicationGrease-Desert_1024x1024.jpg


The guy who built my buggy sold me some of this stuff & I used it for the first 2 years I owned it. 

As he explained it, this is not the "Desert Gold", it is what replaced it.  It was his opinion this was a pretty good grease & he sold it, but it did not work as well as the Desert Gold. 

 
Bobalos said:


The guy who built my buggy sold me some of this stuff & I used it for the first 2 years I owned it. 

As he explained it, this is not the "Desert Gold", it is what replaced it.  It was his opinion this was a pretty good grease & he sold it, but it did not work as well as the Desert Gold. 
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I used that stuff after I ran out of desert gold. It was good but I had to prep cvs twice a season. I went a full season once and got more wear than usual.  I switched to belray/swepco and I was able to only do it once a season with the same wear results as using cat twice a season. 

 
I can’t seem to find the Belray/Sweepco CV grease on Foddrill’s site. Is there a part number? 

 
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Jtmoney714 said:
I used that stuff after I ran out of desert gold. It was good but I had to prep cvs twice a season. I went a full season once and got more wear than usual.  I switched to belray/swepco and I was able to only do it once a season with the same wear results as using cat twice a season. 
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I've heard the same thing from buddies on the CAT stuff.

 
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