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Spline Lube, Amazon tricked me

P

pollbmw

New member
So I am an idiot and bought "30 PTM Lubricating Assembly Grease Spline BMW 75 80 R&K 100 Moto Guzzi, 25gm". I thought I was buying a smaller container of Staburags nbu 30 ptm, but it says it was created by a company called PPS. To make it more weird, the title is all about bikes, but the description talks about using it in food processing.

Ingredients: Oils (petrolium) hydrotreated, barium complex soap.

Has anyone worked with this stuff? Use it or send it back?

If this was brought up before, I tried a few search terms and didn't get a hit.

Your input is appreciated.
 
Looks just like the stuff that I've purchased and used as a spline lube. I have also used a mix of Wurth waterproof wheel bearing grease and Honda Moly 60 as a spline lube. I think most recently I used the Wurth / Honda Moly 60 mix on the final drive splines on the wethead and the 30 PTM grease on the rubber boot about the final drive splines. I don't recall if this was directly from the service manual or something that I gleaned from a Boxflyer video.

For an airhead clutch spline I've used the white Staburag stuff. It is real, real important to carefully clean the splines and not over use the spline grease. Having grease flung from the splines onto the clutch plates is not good!
 
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I tried a bit of searching with little to no luck - the other info was just the same ad over and over again - but I did find this about the Staburags:

Chemical composition, thickener - barium complex soap
Chemical composition, type of oil - mineral oil
View attachment STABURAGS-NBU-30-PTM.pdf attached.

So "maybe" it's the same stuff....?

Does Amazon ever provide MSDS [Material Safety Data Sheet] info? That would tell what's actually in it, including the percentage of moly.
 
I did some more research and I found the website of the supplier: http://procparts.com/

It's a sad little unsecured one page website, but it has a phone number I can call tomorrow to see if I can find out what the actual source of the product.

I Google mapped the address and then did a street view... was not encouraged by what I saw...

Going to order the real stuff after this post.

Right now I'm in for $14, so I'm not sweating it, would just have like to finish installing my new clutch pack tomorrow.
 
Staburags NBU 30 PTM is used to seal rubber driveshaft boots on later model bikes like GSLC, K1600, etc. I have a container of the same stuff you bought and it works well for that; the barium acts as a water repellent and the grease is very tacky. I’m not sure if or how it is different from the 50g tubes of genuine Kluber grease that is also sold on Amazon.


But, it seems a poor choice for splines. Honda Moly60 was the go-to lube until it was discontinued, and there have been other companies that came out with high moly content greases suitable for splines. I’m still using the last dregs of my last tube of the Honda grease, and when that’s gone my go-to will be the TS-60 sold by Beemershop.com. FWIW.

Best,
DeVern
 
Here comes some heresy for the BMW apologists and purists. BMW's specifications for clutch hub and other spline lubes has been ludicrous at best and stupid at worst. I have looked back to the Airheads circa about /7 or so. Anti-seize, BMW # 14 Grease (Texaco Starplex red grease) Stabarugs Assembly Paste, etc. None of these were sufficient.

I started mixing Honda Moly 60 with a sticky Wurth 3000 green grease. This resulted in a 25-30% moly powder by volume grease with excellent characteristics, adhesion, wash-off etc. for splines. It was copied with my advice by TS Moly's subsidiary known as Guard Dog Moly 525 grease. When Ben Mathes, the owner of Guard Dog Moly Lubricants Inc. retired, TS Moly continued some of his products which are now available at Ted Porters Beemer Shop for sure and others I think.
 
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Me

I have been using Anti seize compound since the bike was new. No replacement of transmission splines. One replacement of rear wheel splines. 245000 miles. St.
 
PGlaves said:
Here comes some heresy for the BMW apologists and purists. BMW's specifications for clutch hub and other spline lubes has been ludicrous at best and stupid at worst. I have looked back to the Airheads circa about /7 or so. Anti-seize, BMW # 14 Grease (Texaco Starplex red grease) Stabarugs Assembly Paste, etc. None of these were sufficient.

I started mixing Honda Moly 60 with a sticky Wurth green grease. This resulted in a 25-30% moly powder by volume grease with excellent characteristics, adhesion, wash-off etc. for splines. It was copied with my advice by TS Moly's subsidiary known as Guard Dog Moly 525 grease. When Ben Mathes, the owner of Guard Dog Moly Lubricants Inc. retired, TS Moly continued some of his products which are now available at Ted Porters Beemer Shop for sure and others I think.
Click to expand...

Paul, I remember you writing about the Honda Moly 60 and Wurth combination, so I bought some. Still have quite a bit left of both and it has served me well for my R90s and R1150RT. Until it's gone (I'll be dead first), I'm sticking with that combo.

Thanks!
 
TS Moly has been my go-to lube for splines on all my bikes forever it seems. Like Paul stated BMW's recommendations have been lackluster at best resulting in many issues regarding splines in the clutch assemblies and drive shafts. I even use moly paset in the FD oil and so far no issues there either....YMMV
 
Based on everything, going to go with the TS-60 SG Spline Grease. Now all I have to do is get my clutch pack on without knowing which section is the heaviest on my fly wheel. It's a 1983 R80RT, so the mark wore away long ago... fun fun fun!
 
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