I'm looking for guidance as to either what people have done - actual experience - or what shop practices state.

The scenario is applying side rods with a combination of new and freshly machined brasses to drivers with a combination of new and freshly machined pins. The rods will not see power for some time to come as the running gear work is winding down but boiler work still needs be done. The rods have been and will remain hard grease (Alemite). When the engine once again is under steam the rods will receive plenty of hard grease. It is known some sort of assembly lubrication will be necessary which sparks the discussion.

The questions:
Is it necessary to "flush" the old alemite out of the passages inside the rod ends that did not receive new brasses? (Yes, the brasses that were only machined have been/will be thoroughly cleaned of all chips & coolant.) Why or why not.

If so, can a good quality high pressure soft grease be used for the flush or must it be alemite? Why or why not.

Can a good quality high pressure soft grease be used for assembly and left in place while the running gear is moved as necessary for further assembly of the engine as a whole? Why or why not.

Are there any known detrimental effects of mixing the hard & soft grease?

Please let me express my appreciation in advance to all who choose to share their experience. mld

Your assembly lube is there to -protect the surfaces and keep water and dirt out. I don't see a problem using some sort of soft grease or even antisieze, both will be extruded in early days of service and be replaced by the hard grease. I'd avoid bizarre high tech compounds that could contain things we don't know about that might react with hard grease on general principle. I've always used something convenient and common when I assemble such things, never had an issue.

Actually, the oils and greases made today seem to be far superior to anything in the past. I have more experience with early farm steam and gasoline power but have some applications with reciprocating parts/bearings where in the past, soft greases would simply fly off and leave little protection. I was at a trade show a number of years ago and asked a lubricant manufacturer about this and he gave me a tube of a modern product. Although soft, it has very good staying power and adheres to the rotating parts. After continued use in connecting rod bearings that traditionally used heavy grease, I have found they run cool and fine with this new stuff.
Certainly, in the temporary use you are considering above, it should be fine. I can get information if anyone wishes.

Do they still make STP?

SLIK 50 !!!It really works.

Soft greases should work fine for an assembly lube, especially if you are not going to run for a while. I would not use a synthetic grease or any thing with moly di-sulfide in it (wheel bearing greases). Mixing synthetics and natural greases / base oils is not recommended and I have found issues with moly di-sulfides and water forming acids that will go after the steel. Moly di sulfides are the black stuff in wheel bearing greases.

As Dave said above your main goals are to keep water and dirt out, So slap it on everything, brasses/pins/etc before assembly.

C W

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I hesitate to even post this, because you fellas are bound to think that I'm just barking at the moon again, but this is damn good advice. If even one guy listens to me, he'll save himself a lot more time and trouble than this is taking for me to write.

You mention wet cellars, Chinese QJs use these on all their crown brasses and crankpins, and many preserved steam engines are being retrofitted with them. This is PROGRESS, if you ask me (but nobody did).

Before I started at Texas State RR in the late 90's, they had been working on #201 for years, cussing non stop. Everybody concerned felt that they were being punished by God for all of the bad things they had done when they were little children. They take their religion seriously in those parts, but even so, #201's mains kept running hot no matter what they did.

What they did was drop the drivers, polish the journals, rebabbitt the crown brasses, recut them, and put all that shit back together THREE TIMES OVER. Then God gave somebody the bright idea to dump SLIK 50 in the cellars, and the trouble miraculously and instantly vanished !!!!!!!!

I swear on my Grandmother's grave that this is true.

SLIK 50 became standard practice after that, for breaking in any bearing which took Journaltex. Saved us one Hell of a lot of trouble over the years. To get back on topic, I bet it would work great for siderod assembly lube.

Take Care & WORK SAFE

THANKS to everyone who has taken time to reply so far. All the answers have been noted and I'm hoping they will help someone in the future as much as they are helping us now. Experience is a hard teacher and I'm grateful for what has been shared.
mld

Kelly makes some great points. Also, consider this, even if the grease is perfectly clean (sure), it's probably dried out by now. Also, as he suggests, cleaning everything out makes certain the grease has a clear pathway.

Aside from taking a bit more time, I can't think of any negatives cleaning the old grease out. It's certainly not worth saving such a small amount, and there's no risk involved, or very little anyway. So why not?

Would the old grease not have been cleaned off before the "freshly machined"? And, the rest are new. I don't see him having an issue with that.

Grab a tub of basic axle grease, nothing exotic, even Vaseline, and get them good and coated. Don't worry about the rest so long as you take measures to keep crap that can turn the grease into lapping compound out of it.

Dave,
The freshly machined were machined in place. It was decided that things would be better all around if those bushings were not pressed out of the rods & then back in. That has left the old grease resident in the passage between the OD of the brass and the steel of the rod.
mld

How did you manage to keep any chips out? Interesting method...... I get the concern about their not being loose if removed and pressed back in, though.

Sorry for the slow reply - many jobs to do. It was always a planned part of the job to push the chips out of the passages with fresh grease before reassembly. My inquiry was based on how far to go.

As a side note, I've been told that scraping and then flushing out with a hot water pressure washer worked far better than expected. This way we will start with empty, clean passages and be able to put in fresh grease all around. mld

I disagree with the second post that says "even anti-seize". I agree with most that seem to say any lubricant is good but anti-seize is not a lubricant.