Anyone know about Shell Alvania 7 grease?

[corbin]

Here's a source of Shell Alvania Grease 0974 (formerly Alvania Grease GL 00), in syringe quantities:

http://muniorbust.blogspot.com/p/gre...cycle-hub.html

We use it for our mountain unicycle internally geared hubs.

corbin

[PeteF]

I would take notice of what the likes of SKF say for the bearing. They probably say its ok for either oil or grease lube, so wash the old grease out with a thin lubricating oil then repack with the new grease. if the bearing is ok for alvania RL2 then its not a finicky wussy bearing . As always bearing temp after 20 min should be around 40c to 60c.

Yep that pretty much sums up what I had in mind. The always helpful GregQ here on the board contacted me and very kindly offered to post me up some super-duper bearing grease. I may take him up on the offer, but if all it needs is some schmuck grease I don't know if there are any real advantages in using this valuable grease up on this job.

Willy, I did some searching after you asked, and I couldn't find any information on any previous system used in Australia prior to NLGI. But as I said I really don't know anything about this field so all I'm doing is using Google.

Corbin, thanks for the grease source. I think 00 would be too thin for this application however. I guess the bearings themselves would be happy, but the grease would most likely flow away from the bearings, especially since I don't think there are any seals to stop that from happening.

Pete

[lazlo]

lazlo mentioned not removing the bearings from the spindle.

Im wondering, Why?

My first thought would be that the spindle may of been ground after being placed into the bearings, So at the very least the inner races may be 'aligned' to the spindle rotation wise.

Exactly. They grind the spindle taper in its bearings, which practically eliminates runout. I've seen several guys try to replace their surface grinder spindle bearings, with disastrous results.

I think where the initial confusion came in was with the Alvania 7. I have no idea what that is, but presume it is nothing more than a name, like 7-Eleven; it's the name of the store, not the street address It's also possible that it was indeed something to do with the weight, but maybe under an old system.

I don't think it's an old system -- we all have 40 - 100 year old machines, and Shell Alvania is a common bearing grease, but I've never seen "Alvania 7." I think, more likely, it's either a typo or a Down Under thing, especially since the recommended replacement is what you'd expect -- the modern Alvania NGLI 2 bearing grease.

[Machtool]

but if all it needs is some schmuck grease I don't know if there are any real advantages in using this valuable grease up on this job.

When you buy that in 1kg cans it only works out to about 30 cents per CC. Given that that’s such a slow spindle, your speed factor is only 154,000 for that bearing at 4000 rpm. I’d put a 30% fill or 1.6 CC’s in each. So you need 6.4 CC’s., or a whopping $1.92’s worth. Its not that valuable.

Regards Phil.

[PeteF]

Sorry Phil, what type of grease are you referring to in 1 kg containers? Alvania?

When I initially wrote to Shell, they replied "That [Alvania 7] is a very old grease and we do not have such a specialist product these days.", so I presume it once was made. However I have asked them again to specifically confirm whether it was made at some stage or whether it's 2 typos in the machine's manual.

As far as regreasing the bearings, they won't be removed from the spindle, just cleaned and regreased in situ so I would think that's quite a different scenario to replacing the bearings and/or grinding the spindle with the bearings in place.

Pete

[Machtool]

Sorry Phil, what type of grease are you referring to in 1 kg containers? Alvania?

Sorry I should have said, Kluber Isoflex NBU 15. I bought a fresh can 2 weeks ago. It was $303 including GST for a 1 kg can. Kluber Lubrication is about 300 metre’s around the corner from me here in Thomastown.

So if you wanted to go that route from Greg or myself, its only a couple of bucks worth.

Syringes I buy in 100 box lots off Aus Ebay. Sellers Solmedjo in Sydney or Medivac22a in Albury. They work out to cents each for a sealed sterile syringe. Happy to send you enough up if you wanted to go that way.

Regards Phil.

[PeteF]

Oh thanks Phil, that's not very expensive at all. God knows I owe GregQ so much money already a few more bucks on the tab won't make much difference

Now, regarding the Shell "Alvania 7", despite telling me it was a very old grease, I have asked Shell specifically if it ever actually existed and they say they have no record of it. So those who suggested a typo, it looks like you were right (well actually 2 typos). Now, I'm waiting to see if SKF will reply. I've given them the application and details so we'll see. If I don't hear from them I think I'll go with the "super-grease" from Phil or Greg as I know it's good stuff. The spindle isn't high speed, but it sometimes gets used for lengthy periods without stopping and I definitely don't want to screw up those bearings.

Pete

[Rod Bennett]

Hello Pete, are you still there after 11 years? I take it from the content of your messages that you have a Hebco surface grinder. I recently purchased one of these and am pulling it down to clean and lubricate it. So I'd be interested to know what grease you finally went with.

[Doozer]

This PeteF guy was rather humorous.
Too bad he is not still around.

I think Shell Alvania used to be refined in
Pensyalvania. Hence the name. Not really.
Names of tires, names of pill drugs, and
names of lubricants. All so strange and for
what reason?

-D

[rklopp]

V is next to B on the keyboard, and it was supposed to be Albania grease, so not Pennsalvania. ;-)