lubricating hinges and rubber weather stripping

WD-40 should work just great.

- JR

WD-40 is a solvent with a light oil added for flavor, and is not only totally worthless for lubing the hinges, but will actually flush out whatever lube is remaining in there and make the hinges wear faster. Use a lithium grease on the hinges and rollers, as well as on the latch. Use a dry teflon spray lube designed for locks in your door lock cylinders. Use a silicone oil like Armorall for the rubber gaskets.

JazzMan

Roughly 12/8/03 18:23, JR Lomas's m> WD-40 should work just great.

WD-40 isn't a general lube and is extremely likely to cause damage to rubber weather stripping.

I have a FSM for another brand that just suggests engine oil for door and hood hinges. [Personally I use a Jojoba based oil with dispersed teflon, then wipe carefully, mainly because I have a lot of the stuff.] For tailgate latches, the white spray lube is recommended.

For rubber weather stripping, this same FSM recommends a silicon based lube sprayed on a lint free cloth wiped on sparingly.

Armorall is about as bad as WD-40, maybe worse.

For hinges, engine oil is probably easiest (you can get one of those little metal squirt cans to make it easier), though pretty much any grease should work. Weatherstripping, you can use silicone spray (and then wipe most of it off so it doesn't smear all over your clothes if you rub against it..) You don't want to use any petroleum or oil-type product on rubber.

WD-40 is great at cleaning old grease out before addiing lithium grease. I use that combo on the hood latching mechanisms. Engine oil also works great on door hinges, but it doesn't last too long. For weather stripping around doors or the trunk... there's just one thing that is a killer lubricant and conditioner for this purpose. And that is dielectric tune-up grease. It is clear silicone. You can buy it anywhere in little 3-oz tubes. There is nother better for this in my opinion. Do it every 6-12 months.

How in the world do you apply this SMOOTHLY AND THINLY so it does not end up attracting dust and grit, etc. ????

I would assume you would put some on a RAG and then attempt to WIPE all areas that need it.

Yes, put some on a rag and rub it into the rubber. If you've never done it , the weatherstripping will absorb alot of it Rub it on and wipe off the excess. But, quite frankly, it's not as bad as you might think. As long as you don't get carried away with it. Just enough until it has a shiny almost wet look. Like I said, the rubber will absord the stuff untill it's almost invisible. You're left with some mighty fine looking weather stripping if you care about that sort of thing for car shows and what not. The factory service manual even recommends this for the weather stripping.

Ordinary oil works for all the hinges, but some people prefer spray grease, which is lithium grease in a solvent that evaporates after application. WD-40 doesn't lubricate very well and mostly just disolves existing lubricant so it seeps into the hinges.

Do not use WD-40, baby oil, or most other oils on weatherstrips because they're made of EPDM rubber (vacuum and brake hoses are neoprene), just like radiator and heater hoses, and will turn soft from many of them. The safest lube for EPDM or about any type of rubber or plastic is silicone oil (spray type is fine), but to see what's compatible check the Cole-Parmer:

, which says it's safe to also use cod liver, ginger, palm, and canola oils on EPDM rubber.

You can actually rub brake fluid on rubber weather stripping. It contains additives to preserve rubber.

Ambrose

You never know what can be done when you try hard enough.....

~Brian

It is also a real good paint remover....

Mike

86/00 CJ7 Laredo, 33x9.5 BFG Muds, 'glass nose to tail in '00 88 Cherokee 235 BFG AT's

Bruce Chang wrote in article ...

Another "urban myth".

The valve bodies in most modern automatic transmissions actually lock out reverse gear hydraulically when the pressures in forward gears reach a certain level. It is simply not possible to "drop it into reverse" at any appreciable forward speed.

I remember a particularly destructive friend who tried to destroy the Powerglide transmission in a 1956 (yes, fifty-six) Chevrolet by hitting reverse at 35 m.p.h., but the car just went into "neutral" until almost stopped, then shifted into reverse.

And, we actually used to "fix" stuck governors in the Chrysler 727/904 automatics of the '60s by backing up as fast as possible then dropping the transmission into drive. The jolt would often free up the sliding piston in the governor - which is located on the tailshaft of the transmission.

Bob Paulin - R.A.C.E. Chassis Analysis Services

Why do I have this feeling that my leg is being pulled? Is it also a dessert topping?

Ambrose

No, and it isn't a particularly good floor wax. However it does remove and or damage paint nicely. And is not at all a good idea to use on trim rubber.

It's what I use to remove paint from the valuable antique styrofoam sculptures that I restore for the Louvre.

No leg pulling. Brake fluid will destroy paint really fast.

Mike

86/00 CJ7 Laredo, 33x9.5 BFG Muds, 'glass nose to tail in '00 88 Cherokee 235 BFG AT's

Its not. It is a good paint remover. Try it on something you don't treasure much and see! I know people that regularly use brake fluid to strip paint of plastic airplane models, for example. Its a pretty safe way to get paint overspray off plastic lenses that would melt if you used "real" paint stripper on them.

It might preserve the rubber, but it will do a number on paint. This seems like a bad idea.

Ed