Best grease for drivetrain splines?

[shellhouse]

Figured this would be a good place to ask about which grease everyone prefers for drivetrain splines to help prevent wear and damage from extreme loads.

Are you using any special synthetic grease or just what the factory calls for?

Did a quick search and checked VFAQ, however it's always possible I may have missed something.

 

[RWD4G63]

Are you talking about greasing the axles where they go through the hubs/diff? No grease is needed here, not sure where you heard that you should grease them. I usually put some anti-seize on them but that's because I'm in the midwest and everything gets a little crusty.

 

[1990TSIAWDTALON]

Anti-seize here also, on splines, like the outside CV shaft splines and such.

 

[shellhouse]

Just saw this quote on another board

"Asking about spline lube is like starting an oil thread. Everyone has an opinion. Friendships have been lost, families have broken up and countries have gone to war over what is the "BEST"."

Are you talking about greasing the axles where they go through the hubs/diff? No grease is needed here, not sure where you heard that you should grease them. I usually put some anti-seize on them but that's because I'm in the midwest and everything gets a little crusty.

Ah yes, that's one area. I've always used standard bearing grease on CV/axle splines, trans input splines, TC splines, DS spline, etc. Figured there may be something better with advances in synthetic grease.

 

[steve]

I use waterproof highpressure grease on the splines cause it's usually loaded in the grease gun.
The factory doesn't suggest anything but seeing how much wear is typical on the output shaft it would seem like it needs something as long as it doesn't turn into a lapping compound.

The axle splines are locked in place and don't move so you're more worried about rust welding.
I've never see much wear on the drive shaft splines but they move so lube them up.

 

[Mello]

Anti-seize is too expensive for my blood. I use regular all-purpose high-temp NLGI-2 bearing grease & moly fortified all-purpose NLGI-2 grease on all load bearing fasteners. Really helps with preventing corrosion, consistent torquing & easy removal down the road.

 

[Mech Addict]

yes, I think preventing corrosion is the key. Most of the splined connections that I can think of on a dsm (both side of axles, trans/xfer/prop) don't really have much sliding movement during the majority of operation, so lubrication is not much of an issue. The load is transferred between the metal surfaces in what is essentially a static arrangement (even though both are spinning fast). Compare this to, say, bearings or gears and it should make some sense. I have heard of folks that have ruined hubs by having to press the axle out, and that obviously is a corrosion issue (self-welded), not wear. Splined slip-shafts on live axles (like a pickup or old muscle car) do have more movement under load, and would have to be better lubed.

Anti-seize is too expensive for my blood. I use regular all-purpose high-temp NLGI-2 bearing grease & moly fortified all-purpose NLGI-2 grease on all load bearing fasteners. Really helps with preventing corrosion, consistent torquing & easy removal down the road.

Never thought of anti-sleaze as too expensive. I've had jars of it last for a decade, and only cost 10 (maybe 20 now) bucks. As long as it's not in the exhaust system or brakes, though, grease would work pretty much the same.

 

[Mello]

A tube of all-purpose grease is about 2 bucks & twice the size of a bottle of anti-seize at 10 bucks to do basically the same thing. ARP lube is basically moly grease so what the hell, if its load bearing moly grease it. I save the ARP & anti-seize for the real, critical specific things. All-purpose grease is great for battery terminals too.