[Milsurplus] NAVY type A grease?

[Ron De Silva]

Hopefully there is an ex Machinists mate around.?

I have searched everywhere on line and with fellow sailors with no success.

In rebuilding the MG set for my TDE, I have run into some issues.


Electrically everything is fine and working perfectly.....BUT the simple
process of putting in 4 new bearings and packing them??.

I had no idea what was Navy type A grease?

Sodium.base,Calcium base? I doubted it was lithium.

What viscosity,?Was it traditional NLGI grade 2 grease? NLGI grade 1?


Anyway, after tearing down and cleaning the motor and original  generator
last February. I replaced all bearings and packed them all with red lithium
NLGI grade 2 grease which was standard up until 30 years ago on electric
motors.

The TDE ran fine for a month...but then the armature went bad and I was
looking for a new generator


I was lucky enough to find a nice one and tear it down,cleaned up
everything.Baked in the oven again for drying...then meggered again..All
great.. Then a new coat of glyptol on all the windings  Works fine.

But,I have had issues of one  bearing running 10 degrees warmer than the
other.

And also it's very difficult to get the correct amount of grease into the
bearing cups.

The manual procedure is opening the relief plugs,pumping in new grease at
the fill fitting until old grease is purged from the relief port.


Then run a half hour leaving the drain open to let excess grease release
pressure. Then close off.

If you pack things to that extent..all 4 bearings. Motor and generator ,
will fling grease off the grease shields for an hour before it stops
throwing any more...and appears to run fine afterwards.

I tried NLGI grade1 (lower viscosity) in that warmer bearing careful not to
overpack with grease which naturally causes overheating.....but no change
AND it really flings the lighter grease.

I finally pulled generator apart. Cleaned and removed both old bearings and
put in new bearings.

But I have no idea at this point what to do but lightly pack with red
lithium NLGI 2 grease again.

Anyone with an idea of what mystery Navy Type A grease was in 1942??


Thanks,Ron,NU6F.

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